


Lucky Man

by ThereIsLaughter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Barista Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Explicit Sexual Content, Family Secrets, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) are Roommates, M/M, Mean Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Sexual Content, Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator, Why do I always make Keith really horrible?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-07-10 05:41:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 100,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15942932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereIsLaughter/pseuds/ThereIsLaughter
Summary: Lance never thought he was a particularly lucky man… Well, he never thought he was particularly unlucky either. But this… Situation? Was situation even the right wording? This situation was by far one of Lance's most unluckiest moments.Lance had thought he'd escaped his ex boyfriend, Keith, thought he'd distanced himself to a point where there was no way he'd have to ever bump into him in the street, let alone have to speak with him. But with a new college year, factors in Lance's life are changing and Keith is suddenly thrust back into Lance's life.Sure, falling into bed with your ex who you never really got over is a great idea. Forming a casual hook-up arrangement when you still have some residual feelings for them is even better. Falling in love with them again? Academy award winning.Too bad Keith isn't on the same page.What is young Lancey Lance to do?





	1. Chapter One

“This sucks.” Lance grumbled, his head laid down across his brand new notebook looking ready to be filled, not that he had any ideas what to write down right now. His brain was like a fountain, any ideas that could be turned into something great just pouring out of his ears before they even reached his conscious mind. “I can’t believe we got set this massive assignment on the first day back.”

Lance twisted his neck to the side to see his two best friends staring at him with the same exasperated look he had. Hunk, the elder of the two and having known Lance since the two of them were children, reached forward and brushed a piece of Lance’s fringe out of his eyes in order to see him properly.

“Dude, you just had two months of no college work, shouldn’t you be grateful for something to do at last?”

Hunk’s smile was soft and kind, even though he probably should be irritated since Lance had actually be whinging about the lack of responsibility other than work for the last few weeks at least and now Lance was whinging about getting what he actually wanted.

Lance blew out a gust of hot air in shock at his friend. “Grateful? I should be given at least a week to get back into my routine before they start setting me this kind of burden. At least a week, maybe even two.”

Pidge, Lance’s other best friend who was smaller and younger than both Hunk and Lance, pushed their glasses up the bridge of their nose before pointing a glare in Lance’s general direction. “I’d hate to agree but I do. I was hoping for at least one more week without Lance’s frequent bitching.”

Lance whined out a half-arsed comeback before turning his head centre again into the book and grumbling a number of profanities into the paper. 

Lance was glad to be back, honestly, but it was going to take him a week or two to remember what it was like to be a 19 year old college student taking a course that he now thought was way above his intellectual capabilities. Lance had done his best last year, scraped a passing grade much to his own surprise, and was hoping to hit the ground running this following year in order to continue down this surprising road of success. 

“You weren’t even here last year.” Lance grumbled in Pidge’s direction but didn't turn to look at them again. “You don’t even know the true extent of my frequent bitching.”

“Well feel free to keep me in suspense.” Pidge quipped back without missing a beat, followed by what Lance thought was the sound of Pidge pulling their laptop from the bag and setting it up on the table to work.

This was Pidge’s first year at the college and that newness of it all had worn off on them pretty quickly, before the end of their first week in fact, since first years had to start attending lectures a week before the seconds came back.

Lance pulled his head off the book with all his strength before resting his head on top of his arms which he folded in front of him, crunching his poor new notebook under the weight. He turned to face Hunk who was staring at him with the shadow of a smile across his face and that helped to boost Lance’s mood almost back up to it’s normal levels. 

Lance would never get tired of Hunk’s smile, even when you couldn’t tell from his mouth, he was always smiling. You could tell by the eyes, so big and bright. His eyes held so much joy and wonder and Lance had no choice but to feel that same joy anytime he so much as looked at his best friend. Wow, Lance really loved Hunk. Lance shifted his gaze to Pidge who was looking at him out the corner of their eye with a frown. Did Lance love Pidge? Maybe not as much as Hunk but that was Pidge’s own fault for being such a gremlin all the time. If they were a little bit nicer to him, maybe he could, but no one could beat Hunks perfect energy and aura.

“So what’s the new Astronomy lecturer like, Lance?” Hunk asked. “You said you were worried about what they’d be like right?”

Lance smiled softly. “Well, she’s no Iverson so that’s gotta be worth something. I should have known that nothing can be worse than Iverson, so yeah, so far I think she’s cool.”

“That’s good then.” Hunk beamed. “I’ve got the same lecturer for most of my classes that I did last year, which I’m happy about it since they actually make the course a bit more interesting than I’ve heard the other lectures do.”

“Engineering? Interesting?” Lance snorted. “Now I’ve heard everything. Feel free to kill me when my back is turned because my life is complete now, I’ve experienced it all.”

“Very funny. You won’t be laughing when it’s me you’re asking for help from for your end of year dissertation.”

“Dang. You right. I’ll shut up.”

“That’d be a first.” Pidge suddenly snorted while they typed rapidly into their computer, not even looking up to see Lance’s extremely offended look on his face.

“Oh please, Pidgeon. Of the three of us, you, by far, are on the most boring and worst course of them all.”

“My course is the most practical choice considering it’s the most secure of them all.”

“How is computer science secure?” Lance rolled his eyes. “You gonna tell me when my laptop has a booboo and make it all better?”

“It’s the way the world is going, Lance and no. That’s not even slightly what computer science is. I doubt you could even understand it if I explained it to you.”

Lance lets out a fast breath of air in amusement before sitting up straight and crossing his arms once more over his chest. He watched Pidge continue to speed type something into their computer and out of the corner of his eyes he could sense Hunk’s beaming smile, as he sat in the exact same position as Lance was. 

Lance let out a silent moan as he remembered that both he and Hunk had both forgotten to make and bring a lunch today due to both of them sleeping through their alarms - resulting in both of them nearly being late to their first lectures - and Lance was always reluctant to buy food from the expensive cafeteria since the two of them were barely making enough money to cover their rent as it was.

Lance and Hunk alike had both sacrificed almost the entirety of their summers to their jobs to try and earn some extra cash to keep them afloat for the next few months, so neither of them were just going to throw money away haphazardly.

The sacrifice was easy enough though for the pair of them, it’s not like they had their colleges breathing down their necks, and both of their love lives were easily avoidable, so really working over the summer was an easy option.

Their love lives being the direct opposite of each other of course.

Hunk actually did have a love life, a lovely girl by the name of Shay was the owner of his heart, but Shay was currently away on numerous consecutive Geology placements with her course. Which, meant the two of them hadn’t seen each other in nearly 3 months, Hunk had mentioned that she was going to be home at some point soon but Lance had failed to catch an exact date. Lance felt kind of bad that he wasn’t entirely sure when the young girl was making her return especially given how much Hunk talked about her.

Due to this occasional lack of consideration for others, Lance did not have a love life. Nothing whatsoever. Hell, he had tried. He’s frequented a few bars, underage of course, and had signed up to a couple of dating websites in his time. He’d asked a few girls and guys out alike but none had been successful candidates for Lance’s forever partner. 

So, the sacrifice to work was entirely doable and would probably feel more worth it in the next couple months when they weren’t so desperate for money. Lance remembered last year, towards the end of last semester, which resulted in the two having to rely pretty much entirely on tinned food care packages from Hunk’s parents for any sort of sustenance.

A rougher time, to be sure, but the two had made their way out of it. Learnt to save and spend their money wisely, it was their only choice since the two had always dreamed of the college life they’d have together since they were young. Being a bit tight for cash was worth the freedom and independence that came with living far enough away from campus to avoid the bulk of students but close enough that they were rarely ever late for class.

Living with Hunk was even more fun than Lance had thought it was going to be, and he had high hopes as it was, it was just that two individuals complemented each other so perfectly. Lance was a seriously neat freak, and enjoyed it too, so Lance happily took on the majority of chores around the house. He’d gotten into a habit of hoovering the carpets and cleaning the entire kitchen on his Saturday mornings with a bit of Daddy Yankee blasting in the background. Hunk, however, was the cooking master and happily made Lance lunch and dinner nearly every day of the week, even on the nights he was working he’d make something and put it in the microwave for Lance to reheat at a more acceptable dinner time. 

The two didn’t get a lot of money in terms of their student loans, only just enough to cover the majority of their bills so both worked part time jobs on alternating days of the week. Lance worked Monday and Friday evenings and then one full day on the Sunday whereas Hunk worked Tuesday, Thursday and the occasional Saturday evenings which helped to give the pair money for the rest of their bills as well as food and college supplies. 

Lance enjoyed his job, he’d applied for it on a whim really right when the two had first moved into their new place together. Lance had ventured into this quiet cafe down the road from the flat to pick up Hunk a hot chocolate and a muffin as a little pick-me-up for all the hard work they’d both put in trying to get their new place in order before college started up. Lance had seen the part-time job offer in the window and asked for an application just on a whim. Little did he know that only a week later he’d be there as an employee rather than a customer, Hunk was very happy since he was usually the recipient of numerous tasty treats and drinks which Lance would use his 50% staff discount to buy. 

It took Hunk a little longer to find a job, it was difficult to find something flexible enough to fit around his college life but eventually he’d lucked out after meeting a young man named Kolivan (Or Cole for short as he preferred to be called by his work colleagues) who recognised Hunk’s engineering abilities and took him on as a receptionist/customer service person kind of thing at the local garage. Something that Lance enjoyed very much since he would occasionally come and visit one of the cute mechanics who always had on a tight tank top, covered in oil and dirt, as he worked and would often cause Lance to pull some sort of Pavlov’s dog’s response. 

Now, just about a year later, both were very happy with their jobs and were very grateful that they were in something that could be enjoyable rather than a terrible experience. Sure, they didn’t have all that much free time on their hands with work squeezing between college but it was definitely worth it. Lance didn’t even really mind pulling almost 50 hours a week at the shop during the summer just to get some money saved up and put away just in case they needed it.

Lance smiled sweetly at Hunk who was turned to Pidge and leaning over their computer, reading what they were doing over their shoulder.

Hunk had pulled even more hours than Lance had incredibly, resigning himself to only one day off a week and pulling anywhere between 10 to 14 hour shifts on those six days in. Lance had called the guy mad but Hunk seemed happy to do it, he enjoyed the type of customers they got as well as the co workers. In addition, he was also actually learning a lot of mechanical skills that he thought would be more than beneficial, just not necessarily for his degree, Hunk had brought up a few weeks back that Kolivan mentioned bringing him on as an apprentice. Hunk had always been a fan of cars and mechanics so Lance wouldn’t be surprised if Hunk dropped his degree one day to become an apprentice, but it seemed Hunk was in two minds about it.

Sure, it had been difficult not seeing much of each other during that time but Lance had always felt Hunk’s presence there. Felt it in the boxed dinners that Hunk left him the fridge, in the little post it notes stuck to the TV recommending films or tv shows that Hunk had seen adverts for, and in the warm blanket over his body on the nights that Lance had passed out on the couch after a particularly late finish and Hunk had wrapped him in before going to start his own day at work.

“Hey, it’s Allura.” Hunk suddenly beamed, throwing Lance out of his little “I love Hunk so much” monologue and back into reality.

Lance looked up to watch as Hunk waved across the canteen at a young women stood by the double doors. She caught sight of them and smiled before swiftly approaching, her long autumn dress swaying by her knees as she walked. 

“Hello everyone.” Allura giggled as she reached the table, practically shining beauty as she smiled, Lance felt nothing but blessed as he soaked it up like sun rays. 

“Good morning, Princess.” Lance sang in response, lifting himself from his seat just to do a little bow for her in respect.

“It’s afternoon now, idiot.” Pidge mumbled quietly to themself so Lance just pretended like he didn’t hear them. 

Allura was the last member of their tight little knit group, she was also the eldest being in her third and final year of college. Hunk and Lance had met her on a couple of open days before finally joining, Allura was a social bug and had hundreds of friends around the college and yet for some reason she’d stuck pretty close to the boys last year, and it seemed she was likely to do the same this year.

Lance was proud to admit that he’d fallen for the elder girl pretty soon after meeting her, as he did with most of his hopeful love conquests, and to this day Lance still loved her but over the past year that love had shifted slightly, from something with a potential for romance to something more towards what Lance felt for his elder sister back home, the change had been so natural that Lance had barely noticed it all. 

Allura resembled Lance’s elder sister, Marie, in numerous ways, both head strong and passionate about the world in their personalities but they also looked strangely similar too. In fact if you stood all three of them in a line, Lance, Allura and Marie, and asked a bunch of strangers to point out which two were siblings most would likely assume Allura and Marie, both with the same dark skin and slender, tall frames. The only thing that was noticeably different about them was their hair. Allura had long silvery hair that she dyed on a regular basis that made her look like some sexy grandma or something whereas Marie had a more light brown shade to her, similar to Lance’s himself, since all the McClain children would probably be murdered if any of them went near any sort of hair dye. 

Allura approached the table and sat down happily opposite the small group.

“So, how is everyone?” She giggled. “I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in ages even though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen each of you at least once this week already.”

Pidge smirked. 

Pidge and Allura’s bond had been a bit of a surprise to Lance. Pidge was a bit of hermit really but during the year that Hunk and Lance were here and Pidge was back at home finishing their senior year they actually came to visit. Mostly for the holidays but there were a few long weekends thrown in here and there. 

Lance in the beginning had been a perfect gentleman the first time Pidge came up and had offered his bed, all clean and made, for Pidge to use but they had quite rudely refused and pretty much melted into their couch for the entire trip. That’s why the bond that formed between Pidge and Allura was kind of a surprise.

The two only met a few times face to face last year, usually only for one group activity each visit, but the two had exchanged numbers and had actually grown quite close, which was a surprise because Pidge just did not seem like the person who enjoyed the company of sweet people like Allura.

Still, the two were close and that was just like a breath of fresh air for Lance and Hunk. The group had slotted together like a jigsaw puzzle in a way that just made sense and looked amazing.

Let's face it. They were an attractive bunch.

Pidge could be even better if they just had a couple more inches to their legs.

Lance had told Pidge this once and receives a swift punch to the gut. 

Lance turned to each member of the table in turn and watched as Pidge stared almost evilly in Allura’s direction, Allura seemed a little unbeknownst to it but there was some deep seeded discomfort in her posture that made Lance frown a little in confusion.

“Busy summer, Allura?” Pidge suddenly raised an eyebrow at her with a knowing look on her face.

Lance watched as Allura stared at the youngest for a second with a slightly wide eyed expression.

“I-I mean-” Allura gulped nervously. “It was pretty good.”

“Pretty good?” Pidge wiggled their eyebrows suggestively. “Is that all?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing else?”

“Not really.”

“Hmm.”

“Okay, Gremlin. What do you know?” Lance sat up in his seat in delight. “Allura what gossip does Pidge have on you?”

“I- I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. Really.” Allura blushed turning away from the group.

“Oh.” Pidge smirked. “So that wasn’t a certain Astrology third year with ‘dreamy eyes and a hot bod’ that I saw walking you to class this morning.”

Allura turned back in shock, her face and neck entirely red. “Wh-What? You thought that someone was walking me to class? You must be mistaken. It most definitely wasn’t me.”

“Ohh.” Pidge laughed again. “So it wasn’t you who gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek before sprinting into the class like some young teen running from their young adult responsibilities.”

“Too real.” Lance whispered but continued to listen to the banter between his two friends.

“N-No. I walked to class by myself this morning.”

“Oh right.” Pidge smirked, pushing their glasses up their face. “Well… In related news, this  certain Astrology third year turned up at my work yesterday asking for this book. I can’t remember the name something about feminism, emotions and social movements and I was thinking to myself hmm… Somebody else asked me the other day if we sold this book and I distinctly remember telling them that we didn’t have it so that got me thinking-”

“Alright.” Allura gave in. “Fine. You caught me.”

Pidge smirked.

Allura immediately blushed. “He really went into your shop looking for that book for me?”

“Yep.” 

“Thats… That’s so sweet of him.” Allura couldn’t help the gentle giggle that escaped her usually perfectly tuned lips. “His name is Shiro. We met last year at the end of year football rally and just went on a few dates over the holidays.”

“A few dates?” Pidge laughed. “You practically spent the entire summer together.”

Allura gasped. “Who told you that?”

“Shiro did. I asked him when he came in the shop. I asked him not to tell you that I’d worked it out, made up some excuse like I wanted you to feel comfortable to say it yourself but really I just wanted to be a dick about it.”

“Least you’re honest.” Lance mumbled. “Eventually.”

The group broke into a fit of giggles with a very red faced Allura looking just about fit to burst when suddenly Hunk gasped and slammed his hands down on the table as if he’d just remembered something.

“O M G.” Hunk looked down at his watch and tapped it as if that would make a difference. “Is that the time? Lance, we’re going to be late.”

“Late for what?” Lance mumbled as he watched his friend rise from the table and untidily swipes his belongings into his backpack, waiting for Lance to rise.

“We’ve got tutor now over in the politics building.” Hunk groaned. “It’s paperwork day.”

Lance rolled his eyes but understood and slowly rose to his feet, no intention of going any faster than need be since it was only a tutor slot and Lance didn’t much care about being known for his punctuality.

Lance and Hunk had counted their lucky stars when they’d been placed in the same tutor group. Tutor groups worked strange at this college where students from a range of different subjects were put together with one tutor, it was rare that a tutor was actually the teacher of a student's course which pretty much removed the point of tutor groups. Two hours a week spent in a classroom with a bunch of people you don’t know who don’t do your course and a tutor who also doesn’t do your course so can’t support you if you have questions or need extra help.

Hunk and Lance didn’t have the same tutor last year, Hunk had some Biochemistry lecturer while Lance had a Clinical Psychology lecturer, just his luck. In another universe, Lance wanted to do that as his major but due to his family he chose the Astronomy path instead and left that dream in the dust. So it was a little bit mean of the universe to give him that exact lecturer as his tutor.

Lance supposed it could have been worse. For the half a year he did attend his tutor sessions he had long, intellectual talks with the lecturer about the psychology world and recent news and what not. It was fun but a painful reminder of what Lance could have had. 

“Lance, we have to go now!” Hunk whined, Lance looked over to see Hunk nervously bouncing on the balls of his feet ready to take off at any moment. “Come on.”

Lance waved him off with a swish of his wrist as he started throwing his things untidily into his backpack before zipping it up. He moved torturously slowly and enjoyed the silent whines of impatience Hunk kept emitting before he walked over. 

Hunk grabbed his hand immediately and pulled him out of the canteen and out of the main building on campus. Lance couldn’t help but laugh as the nervous, big ball of beauty’s gaze darted in every direction before falling somewhere towards the left.

“Is that the politics building?” Hunk cried out, pulling Lance towards it nonetheless. “I can’t even tell.”

Lance laughed again but put his friend out of his misery by speaking. “Yes it is. That's why we always meet Allura here when she finishes class.”

Hunk whined, still not happy about the situation, before the two charged into the large building and jogged over to their room, the door was shut which wasn’t a good sign but regardless the two slammed against it with all their weight and pretty much tripped into the threshold. 

“Oh thank god.” Hunk took in a huge gulp of air as he leant back to try and get his breath back. Hunk pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the front screen, a smile spreading over his face as he did. “1:29. We just made it.”

Lance smiled back happily and went to close the door behind the pair, since they were probably the only ones to cut it this close anyway. 

Hunk took hold of Lance’s hand once more and pulled him deeper into the room. The room was brightly lit with a large number of rows, the room was huge, probably able to sit up to 200 students at one time if it had to, but right now Lance doubted there was even a third of that size seated in the class right now, all staring down at the pair as they took two seats in the empty front row and sat themselves down. 

Lance shifted his eyes around the room and settled upon a tall figure in the corner of the room facing his back to the class. Lance could tell instantly that this well dressed, ginger haired man was his new tutor simply by the way he held himself, like a professional. Like a man in charge. The man turned so he face the front for the first time and Lance raised an eyebrow as he noticed that the man was staring intently into a large thick book, occasionally smiling to himself as he read. 

“I’m going to look over my new assignment.” Hunk muttered as he reached into his bag and grabbed out his laptop out, ready and willing to get on with his work.

Lance was less ready, and a lot less willing. Nevertheless, he reluctantly reached into his bag and grabbed out a couple of notebooks, one of which he’d already used in his first class early, and his makeshift pencil case. Makeshift because it was literally just a few pens tied in a group with a rubber band. 

“I don’t even see why we came, Hunk. We never went to our tutor rooms last year.” Lance lied just because he wanted to complain, careful not to be caught whining by their new tutor who was still stood in the corner of the room reading and chuckling to himself.

“No, Lance. If you remember correctly we went to tutor for like half the year and then stopped going. This year we’ll just come for like a month or two and then stop. I don’t want to miss out on important information which we will probably get a lot of for the next few weeks.”

Lance let out a soft snort in disagreement but offered no response other than that before taking out his pen. Lance then gets to work on rewriting some of the notes he’d taken in his first lecture while he waits for the tutor to start addressing the group. After a minute or two, the tall man turns and takes a deep breath in as if to speak but no words follow as it seems that he is just looking around and analysing the entire group before his eyes finally focus centre and he lets out a happy sigh.

“Good Afternoon, second years.” He finally spoke, a massive grin erupting beneath his ginger moustached. “My name is Coran, and I will be your tutor for the next 10 months. How are we all feeling today?”

The small group of what Lance guessed were around 25 if not more students let out a simultaneous groan which, if anything, caused Corans wide smile to grow even wider.

“Excellent. Well I’ll start off with a few introductions so you can get to know me, some of you already do, I can recognise a few faces from my lectures last year but there are definitely a few new faces.” Coran’s eyes drifted in Lance’s direction for a second and Lance throws back a friendly half-smile in return in recognition. “And I look forward to meeting all of you properly and getting to know you all. But now, first things first, the boring part. I’m going to send around a few pieces of paperwork which you’re all expected to read and-”

Just before Coran could finish, the door to the room burst open, so fast that it actually twirled a full 180 degrees and smacked loudly against the wall followed by a rush of clothes and hair into the room and standing at the front of the lecture hall, red and embarrassed.

“Oh. Well… Normally I’d mark you out due to your tardiness, young man, but since this is the first day. I will allow it this once - and this once only.”

Lance’s eyes widen in surprise as he looked at the new arrival to the room. Lance felt Hunk move in towards him and whisper something but Lance was too focused on the student in front of him to comprehend what Hunk had said. 

The student looked rather disheveled, his clothes were all untidy and bunched up, his red and white jacket had been thrown haphazardly over his shoulders while his long, raven hair looked slightly fitting as a bird’s nest atop his head. Lance watched as the student grabbed desperately at their open and overflowing backpack they held in front, trying to stop loose sheets of paper from falling out and onto the floor.

After a minute, the student closed the bag and nodded gratefully at the teacher. 

“Thank you… Sir.” The student whispered awkwardly before nodding his head in further thanks. Suddenly, he turned his head and, as fate would have it, his eyes locked on Lance almost immediately and the two just stopped and stared at each other for a few seconds before the student’s face completely shifted to hatred and he immediately charged forwards and stomped passed Lance and up towards the back of the lecture hall.

Another second or two passed before Hunk leaned over once more and whispered as quietly as he could manage. “Was that-”

Lance whimpered as he tried to stop himself from turning his body around to follow the figure.

“Keith.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I only just got around to watching Seasons 6 and 7 so I'm just going to ignore all the Allurance and ... Keith/Acxa (I'm not gonna pretend like I know their ship name.)
> 
> I started writing this story after Season 2, okay! I get a little bit of leeway 'cause I'm not rewriting aspects of this story to be more canon fitting.  
> Let's also say Shiro is bi in this story because, again, I'm not rewriting this damn story that I've been on and off for well over a year now.

Lance never thought he was a particularly lucky man… Well, he never thought he was particularly unlucky either. But this… Situation? Was situation even the right wording? This situation was by far one of Lance's most unluckiest moments.

Lance watched as Keith locked eyes with him before storming up the steps to a seat further back, keeping his eyes on Lance pretty much the entire time. The stomping of his feet matching the volume of Lance’s heart right now until he reached a few lines back, stopped and stomped over to a free seat and slammed his body down into it.

Lance lifted his head into the sky as if to ask the god’s “why,” why would they do this to him now? Lance had thought he'd done it. Finally gotten free of Keith’s grasp on his life but oh no. _ Oh no! _ Here we go again. Lance was going to be forced to look at Keith's gorgeously handsome face on a biweekly basis after having avoiding it for over a year and a half.

Balls.

Don't do that to yourself Lance. Don't think about how good looking he is. Don't think about the fact that he seems to be packing in his shirt more than he used to. Don't think about how his hair is slightly longer than it was before, perfect length to grab and pull while you-

_ Stop _ ! Just don't think about it.

“I can't believe Keith's here.” Hunk suddenly whispered, thankfully pulling Lance out of what could possibly turn into more than lewd thoughts. “I haven't seen him since high school. I didn't even believe you that he was at this college since I never saw him.”

Lance nodded, he could feel his legs wobbling nervously under the desk.  

He could feel the holes that Keith was firing into his back from here and almost immediately Lance was filled with this overwhelming surge of self-pity. Why did this have to happen to him? Why did whatever Gods were up there think that this was what Lance deserved? Lance had always tried to be a good man. He babysat his siblings every weekend when he was living at home. Helped his little brother save up for a bike by donating his own money just so he could get a nice one. Always helped his friends when they needed him.

But on the other hand, maybe he did deserve this…

Only the lords really understood about Keith and Lance’s history after all. Maybe this was the god's way of saying that Lance was a bit of an asshole. 

“Don't look now but he is staring right at you.” Hunk whispered. 

Lance grimaced. “I know. I can feel him shooting me full of daggers.”

Hunk chuckled but turned back to face the front fully, leaning in to whisper into Lance's ear. “Should I talk to him? I feel like I should talk to him. Would you be mad if I talked to him? Would he be mad if I talked to him?”

Lance snorted as his friend went off onto a tangent about not wanting to corner his best friend’s ex boyfriend and trigger his fight or flight reflex, of which Lance’s ex had a more prominent fight first fly later.. 

Lance shivered. Ex boyfriend. Ex. Boyfriend. 

It almost sounded wrong to think. Sadly, like most teenagers in love, Lance thought that Keith was it, that they were each other’s forever partner, obviously that ended up not being the case, being young, dumb and in love was a risky combo. It’s funny how things turn out really. Funny how history has a way of kicking someone up the backside.

Or fate.

Was it fate or history that could cripple a man like Lance in just a second or two?

Lance wasn’t really the type to believe in fate, but he supposed that in terms of Keith, he could probably be convinced... Since their meeting had felt like fate at the time afterall.

Keith had been a late entry into highschool, didn’t join until the beginning of Junior year. He was a foster kid, with a few behaviour problems as well, so according to rumour he’d been kicked out of his previous school and was being forced to attend their high school. Lots of rumours flew around school about Keith. He smoked, stole a motorbike that he drove to school, slept with teachers to boost his grades, some even suggested that he had killed a man. 

At first, the pair had adamantly hated each other, or it least Lance was convinced they did at the time. Keith was the class brains, always scoring phenomenally on tests and it always rubbed Lance up the wrong way. He didn’t trust Keith, thought something about him was sketchy. There was just something about him. Maybe it was the rumours about why he’d joined so late, that he was a violent kid, that had Lance paying extra attention to him. 

Hunk, obviously, had called him ridiculous and had pretty much called Lance out from the get go for his behaviour and that should’ve been it. It’s not like Keith hung out with them so all Lance had to do was just ignore him and go on with his life pretending that Keith Kogane didn’t exist, why was he so obsessed with what the pale skinned boy was doing? What was he eating? Who he was he talking to? It literally didn’t matter because Keith Kogane was not apart of their lives.

That was until the January of Sophomore year when Keith and Hunk were made partners in an important science project. Hunk would not shut up about how amazing Keith was, how clever, and kind, and funny, he was. It used to make Lance grind his teeth down until his jaw would ache. 

Then, Lance had the pleasure of meeting Keith himself. There’s no way he could ever forget their first meeting, even if he tried to. It was one of Lance’s most embarrassing days (and that was saying something). 

It was lunch time. Hunk had let Lance know that morning that he planned on bringing Keith to sit with them to eat since Keith usually went and ate in the library by himself. When the time came and the pair approached, Lance pushed himself up from the table and marched over to the slightly shorter boy. Lance had tried to square up, straightened his back and tensed his shoulders and arms, said that they were rivals and that no one could match the pure animosity that the two felt towards each other.

Lance remembered watching Keith’s at first pleasant smile melt into something disappointed, almost sad, and that was when Lance knew. He never wanted to see this boy frown ever again, he had no idea why but he knew that he’d do everything in his power so that this short, dark haired boy with an obvious love for pop-punk bands and eyeliner would never frown again. 

God he was so young and stupid. He had no idea what had made him feel that way at the time. Hindsight was a funny thing.

Pidge and Hunk had been the ones who had made the effort with Keith, asking him to join them for lunch every day, to do homework together, to hang out. Lance had tried his best to keep up but it felt like anytime he caught a glimpse of Keith he’d be tripping over his own words. But, they managed to get to a status of friendship between them and soon Keith and Lance were getting closer and closer by the day. 

The two hadn’t been friends all that long before things started changing between them again. In fact it happened almost immediately after Keith was fully integrated into the group. The four did everything together, from eating lunch, to studying, to walking each other home. Back then, Lance didn’t live far from the school but he would still walk the 40 minute journey all the way to Keith’s house just to make sure he got home safe and then walk back to his own home after.

Kind gestures like that didn’t seem to go unnoticed with the other members of the group. Pidge would constantly tease Lance about his “crush” on Keith, he’d adamantly deny it of course. Sure, he was out of the closet and proud... but this was Keith. Keith who he’d only just started to get along with. Keith who wore red jeans to school with “my chemical romance” patches sewed into the material. Keith who would wear his mullet up on hot days but keep parts of the front down so that it framed his face just right in a way that really brought out his strong cheekbones and sweet mouth.

Lance didn’t have a crush on Keith.

He was already head over heels for him.

And Lance isn’t really known for his subtlety.

A couple months passed and Lance had resigned himself to being nothing more than a casual playmate to Keith since Keith had never really spoken about love or romance or anything along those lines, Lance didn’t even know if Keith’s sexuality could line up with Lance’s. Lance was fine with that, he enjoyed Keith’s company more than anything so he was only a little sad that it was inappropriate for the pair to kiss, hug, or do anything that resembled a couple.

That clearly didn’t stop Keith though. It was like a light switch. One day, the pair were talking and joking like always, and then the next, Keith was on Lance like a panther, jumping onto his back, always keeping at least one body part touching him at all times, tickling him relentlessly, then when they were alone Keith was a lot softer, running his hands down Lance’s arms, curling his fingers into Lance’s hair, pressing his chest into Lance’s back until finally, poor Lance, cracked.

Lance is well known for his patience, he has 5 siblings he has to be, but back then when gorgeous Keith Kogane is pushing himself into your personal space at every given second of the day. Even the most patient man on Earth would give in eventually and Lance did. 

Looking back, their first kiss could’ve been a bit smoother, Lance remembered turning around like a shot and grabbing Keith by his shoulders, the raven haired boy had looked up at him with almost a look of triumph across his cheeks and that had been the final straw. Lance pulled Keith forward and wrapped his arms quickly around his waist to lift him up to the same height, then without even asking for permission or waiting for a response, he clashed their mouths together in an awkward, too much vigour, too much teeth, tongue dancing explosion. 

It wasn’t Lance’s best work that’s for sure… But somehow it worked.

Not really knowing how it happened, the pair started dating pretty much from that same day. They still argued and bickered but there was a lot more gentle touches and lusty kisses. Things were good, more than good even, for a while but unfortunately, like with most relationships especially when you’re young, things soon turned sour and the two boys split up on bad terms before they’d even reached their 6 month anniversary.

Keith completely removed himself from the group and never spoke to any of them again, it was almost like he just vanished, Lance never saw him in class or around the canteen or even around the study hall. Lance might have assumed that Keith had dropped out if it wasn’t for the Kogane name still being plastered in the number 1 spot after important tests and quizzes.

Which brings them back to now, Lance never saw Keith again during the remainder of high school, not even a glimpse of him. He didn’t even know for sure that he went to this same university until an unfortunate incident last year that left Lance shook to his very bones. But it was okay, because it was a rare occurrence, he didn’t think he’d have to see Keith again… Especially not in two 1-hour sessions per week useless tutorial slots.

Someone out there must have a vendetta against the McClains.

Because even if Lance was a bit of an asshoole back in the day. No one deserved this.

“Y’know what?” Hunk sighed, breaking up Lance’s racing thoughts. “Let’s just pretend he’s not here. He isn’t here. Who isn’t here? I don’t know, ‘cause they’re not here.”

Lance couldn’t help chuckling a little and he quickly tried to comply with his friends request. 

After that, the rest of the hour passed by rather smoothly. Coran handed out dozens of forms and pamphlets that Lance carefully flicked through, pretending to read the words just to seem as if the heat on the back of his neck wasn’t starting to really bother him. 

It seemed to be working on Hunk, for a while at least, that is until Hunk actually asked Lance what he was reading and it was almost like Lance started buffering, unable to draw out an answer for nearly 10 seconds before being released from his tension by Hunk letting out a soft and amused “Oh. I see.”

After that, Hunk engaged Lance in some actual conversation, mostly about his workload for the year and the spread of his assignments and Lance gave him all of the attention he was able to, even if for just a moment, it could take his mind of his sexy-exy sitting at the back of the room. 

After what started out feeling like an eternity, but ended up going by in a blur, the bell rang signalling the end of the period and all students in unison rose to their feet and began cramming all of their given resources into the bags in a haste fashion. 

Hunk paused to look at his phone and then showed the screen to Lance. “Apparently we can’t leave until Allura has spoken to all of us. She must need to tell us something.”

“Maybe it’s to finally confess her infatious love for me and to propose that the two of us, how you say, go steady.” Lance giggled like a child as he pulled his bag over his back and took a step backwards towards the aisle that would lead them out of the room. “I don’t blame her, it’s hard to resist the charm of Lance McClain.”

Unconsciously, Lance took another step backwards as he mocked a swooning pose meant to be an impression of Allura, but the impression didn’t last long as he suddenly felt something crash against his shoulder sending him stumbling forward slightly. 

“Watch it!” A voice snarled as Lance quickly tried to recover from his stumble. Lance turned immediately to apologise to the voice but his own voice caught in his throat as he matched eyes with Keith himself.

“Ahh. Ye-” 

A reply wasn’t really necessary since Keith didn’t stop and wait for one, just pushed his way down the final stairs, threading between students like a lucid ghost until he left the room and left Lance’s sight.

“Oops.” Hunk shrugged, not really knowing what else to say.

Lance could agree with that.

A few seconds later, the pair moved to the exit themselves and away from their lecture hall, bags hanging loosely on their backs as they chatted idly about the rest of their days, both seemingly too nervous to address the real elephant in the room, or not elephant, maybe jaguar, or sexy horse with a weird hairstyle, Lance wasn’t so good matching his metaphors to mean Keith. 

They slowly made their way towards the reception together and waited patiently for Pidge to turn up so that the three could walk home together. It didn’t take long for Pidge to show up, and it took even less time for Hunk to spill the beans on Lance’s new turn of events concerning his hot ex.

Due to the nature of the chat, Pidge pulled the pair down onto the ground and the three sat on the field to fully discuss the problems. Pidge may not seem like it but they were a serious gossip hoe, always trying to squeeze every bit of information they could out of people till they had an insane plethora of information which in Lance’s opinion was more blackmail than anything.

Pidge stayed awfully quiet when asked what she planned to do with all the information she’d gained.

“Keith the shitty ex?” Pidge frowned. “I thought you said you were avoiding him like the plague.”

“-and pretty well considering you both pretty much do the exact same course.” Hunk nodded in agreement.

“Astronomy and Astrology are not the same thing.” Lance grumbled from the floor, his face shoved in the grass so hard he could feel the blades tickling the inside of his nose. “And yes, I have been doing a phenomenal job all things considered. I only bumped into him like… twice last year and they were both at parties so he was easy to avoid after.”

Plus the fact that they were the two parties that Lance got the most drunk so he probably couldn’t have found Keith again even if he had tried.

Pidge glared down at him as if they were thinking. “Did you talk to him?”

“What today? Do I look like a mad man to you, Pidge?- Don't even think about sassing me.”

“That’s just so weird. Do you think he’s… still mad?” Hunk frowned. “Not that I think he should be! Well, I don’t know, should he? You still haven’t really told us what happened, Lance.”

“He should be mad, and it was quite obvious that he was.” Lance slowly sat up again and rubbed at the back of his neck uncomfortably, they were entering dangerous territory now where the pair might actually ask Lance  _ why _ Keith is as mad as he is, and Lance isn’t ready for that one yet. “Anyway. I don’t wanna talk about this anymore, he’s just a guy I happened to date and things didn’t work out, it happens sometimes, it’s not like I have to actually speak to the guy.”

Pidge and Hunk looked at each other with a knowing look before chuckling to themselves.

“Knowing your luck? You’re going to somehow end up in space together, in the same shuttle, with only the pair of you to keep each other company. Things like that seem to always happen to you.” Pidge snorted. “Honestly, I’d be more surprised if you  _ didn’t _ talk to each other for the entire year.”

“I agree.” Hunk caved. “Stuff just seems to always happen to you, Lance. You’re a drama magnet. It just gravitates towards you. Remember Billy Buttons from 6th grade who brought you a different gift every day for two weeks, no one else can say they have that story in their past.”

“Well, for once. It would be nice if drama just left me alone.” Lance groaned and the conversation was immediately dropped as he caught sight of Allura quickly making her way across the field and in their direction. 

“Hey guys!” Allura smiled sweetly when she was just a few feet away before arriving and pulling each one in turn for a short hug, a little awkward since Allura was standing and the others were all sitting. “I’m so glad I was able to find you all, I have something important to tell you.”

“You dumped that boy toy of yours yet?” Lance winked. “Realised that you and I were made for each other.”

“No. I have a surprise for you guys.” Allura pumped her fists up into the air excitedly, as usual completely ignoring Lance’s joking advances. Lance couldn't help but smile at the elder girl as she practically danced on the spot. She was like a child when she was excited which was different from her usual mom like attitude 95% of the time. 

“What is it?” Hunk smiled at her, probably thinking the same thing as Lance.

“I hope you’re all ready.” Allura giggled excitedly. “So… Tonight… We are going to the hottest “start of the year party” on campus!”

Lance and Hunk both cocked their head in confusion immediately.

“Why would we do that?” Lance asked. Not that Lance wasn’t a fan of parties because he definitely was but the first day back? Lance needed sleep more than anything. 

“Oh come on!” Allura pouted immediately. “Can’t you guys be a bit more excited! Only third years get to go to this kind of party, and only the cool ones at that, and I actually managed to get an invite for all you guys.”

“Are you saying we aren’t cool?” Pidge mock gasped in shock, laying one hand on their chest as if pained by Allura’s words.

“You’re a first year.” Allura shot back. “You’re especially lucky to be able to go.”

“Oh. I’m feeling lucky.” Pidge rolled their eyes before taking their phone out of their pocket and scrolling through something. 

Allura frowned sadly. “So you guys won't come?”

The three all turned to each other in unison, a knowing look passed between them before they all glanced back at Allura whos frown deepened immediately, and just like that all their reservation melted away with just a look from her. 

Hunk gasped at her expression. “I'll come for an hour or two but I do have early classes tomorrow… and Lance, you'll join me right?”

“Yeah, I guess, I mean, what's the alternative? Sitting at home on my own while my roommate gets up to mischief without me? No thanks.” Lance lifted his hands as if he were the messiah spitting wisdom. “I’ll be there. Pidge will be too because they won't miss out on the chance to see my flirting skills in action.”

Pidge snorted. “Lance is right. I wouldn't miss that for the world.”

“Great. Then I'll meet you all at the party around 9?” Allura beamed. “I'm bringing some people with me so I'll make sure to introduce you to them.”

“Alright. Smell ya later, Princess.” Lance smirked just as Allura twirled on her heel and jogged back the way she had come.

The trio walked in silence for a few minutes before they reached the bottom of Pidge’s apartment duplex and sat back down on some benches outside for a few minutes, Pidge pulled out her laptop and tapped out a few things while Hunk scrolled through his phone, he was apparently adding some bits to his shopping list that he’d go to the store tomorrow afternoon to pick up.

About half an hour later of just sitting in each other’s company, Pidge broke the silence once more.

“Pick me up just before 9. Don’t be late.” Pidge pointed a boney finger at Lance. They were probably trying to come off as threatening but given Pidge’s stature, they never did. 

“I’ll make sure he’s not.” Hunk chuckled warmly.

Lance gasped as if offended, he was never  _ late  _ late. Just fashionably late. “Oh come on guys. Didn’t you hear what Allura said? She’s bringing people. I’m willing to bet my favourite Shakira song that she means her new hottie on a lead. I’m not missing that for the world.”

“You’re not going to get all possessive like you did with the last guy are you?” Pidge rolled her eyes. “She wasn’t even dating that guy but you were acting like a total ass.”

Lance rolled his eyes back at Pidge in a exasperated fashion. “Loser-Lotor or whatever his name was, was an asshole, didn’t even deserve to be in Allura’s presence. I had no choice but to scare him off before he started thinking he was a permanent feature in the group and you can’t disagree with me. We all knew he was bad news and thankfully, sooner rather than later, Allura did too.”

“Allura is a grown woman, more grown than you in fact-” Hunk reprimanded, standing to his feet and lifting Lance with him. “She can make her own decisions. Don’t make tonight uncomfortable for her, or else she’s not going to want to introduce us to any other person she may end up seeing in her life.”

“Argh!” Lance groaned, long and dramatic, so long that during his little melodrama Pidge was able to stand, quickly put her laptop back in her bag and then land a swift, but not too hard, punch to his stomach. 

“Got it, Lance?” Pidge reaffirmed, holding her little fist up as if ready to attack again if necessary. 

“Fine. Understood.”


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is your fault, by the way.” Keith growled when he figured Lance wasn’t going to address the staring thing. “You acted like a child so Shiro treated you like one, sadly I’m the asshole who managed to get dragged along with you.”
> 
> “Glad to know you at least recognise the fact that you’re an asshole.”

“Lance are you ready yet?” Hunk called from the living room, clearly sounding a little exasperated since he had been dressed, ready and just waiting on Lance for nearly 15 minutes now.

“You can’t rush perfection, Hunk.” Lance called back as he swapped his shirt yet again for something he thought would be more suitable. 

A couple of seconds later, Lance heard loud footsteps approach his door followed by a quick melodic knock. Hunk called in immediately after. “Can I come in?”

“Sure. I’m only top half naked.” Lance chuckled.

The door slowly opened and Hunk clumsily stepped in, Lance turned to him and couldn’t help but laugh at his best friend huddled at the door with a hand covering his eyes.

“Hunk. I’m not messing you about, I really am pretty much dressed.” 

Hunk peeled one finger away and squinted his eyes to check before releasing a relieved sigh and removing the hand completely, letting his arm drop to his side. “I just had to be sure. You’ve pulled that move on me so many times. I don’t care how long we’ve known each other, Lance, I don’t need to see your junk every time I walk in here.”

“Please. My junk is a blessing. Anyone would be lucky to see it.” Lance flaunted his muscles in response, putting on his best pouty face which caused his friend to let out a soft chuckle in response.

“You say anyone but I’m pretty sure no one except me is seeing it these days.” Hunk grunted. “Not that I’m agreeing with you by the way.”

Lance shot back a smirk as he pulled yet another button up shirt from his closet and pulled it up to his chest for inspection. “That’s all going to change tonight, Hunk, I’ve got a good feeling about tonight. My hairs stunning, my face is clear, my ass looks great in these pants, it’s almost fate. The stars are all lining up for me to get some hot action tonight.”

“That’d be a change.” Hunk smirked which Lance responded to by reaching back and grabbing one of his already vito-d outfits and throwing it directly at Hunk’s face which successfully hit its target square on.

“I’m serious, Hunk.” Lance smirked as he unbuttoned his shirt enough to pull it over his head. He inspected himself in the mirror as he started buttoning himself up again to look smart before shooting himself some cool-kid finger guns. “By the end of this night, someone is going to be set on the long path of falling in love with me.”

“It's possible.”

“Thank yo-”

“So long as you don't open your mouth and try to speak.” Hunk snorted, his little nose curling upwards as did. 

Lance gasped dramatically, one hand up to his chest as he leant back. “Hunk. My buddy. How could you? I’ll have you know that my mouth tends to be what most of my partners like the most about me. If you know what I mean.”

“I think that aliens listening in know what you mean right now.” Hunk groaned. “And they’re as grossed out as I am. Can we go?”

Lance smirked, grabbing his phone from the bed. He didn’t need to take anything else, taking his wallet was just asking for trouble it was better if it stayed here and he wouldn’t need keys since Hunk was coming and Hunk almost never got drunk- He was probably too afraid to get drunk because then who would make sure that Lance’s stupid ass was safe- so would be the designated getter-homer later on. 

“Sure you don’t want to take your keys?” Hunk interrupted as if reading Lance’s thoughts. “I’m only going for a couple of hours. Three at the most. That’s quite early for you to be going home.”

“It’s fine.” Lance smiled. “It’s no fun without my main man at my side anyway, so, we’ll go home later tonight like the married couple we are.”

“Okay, my dear wife. Then let’s get going, you look great, you smell great, get your shoes on, we’re going. Right now.”

Lance wiggled his hips as he stepped around Hunk to leave the room. “Ooh. I like it when my hubby uses a firmer hand.”

Hunk smiled as he followed Lance out the room and the two prepped and headed out the door, Hunk remembering to lock the door behind him.

The two made their way down to the street and began the short walk towards Pidge’s place. Pidge had opted to live in student accommodation for their first year so they were actually living on the campus unlike Hunk and Lance who lived a few minutes away from campus. Lance had been surprised when Pidge had made the decision to stay in that kind of housing, their parents were minted and more than willing to let Pidge up with their own place but also being in student housing, Pidge was sharing with 3 other first years in the same apartment. Pidge wasn’t exactly the biggest people pleaser so why they’d decided to do that, Lance didn’t know and Pidge wouldn’t tell.

“There they are.” Hunk suddenly pointed forward to the apartment complex in front as the two made quick work towards it.

They found Pidge at the bottom of their apartment complex, tapping their foot against the floor in irritation. Lance couldn’t help but smile at Pidge’s outfit, the young one was wearing tight fit black jeans, a tight black vest with a green plaid shirt left open on top. Could they look anymore stereotypical? 

Though, that was a bit hypocritical since Lance definitely matched his personality to some of the stereotypes surrounding him. The bi stereotypes and spanish stereotypes were his favourite. Who didn’t love a bit of Shakira while chowing down on tacos, proclaiming to never want to be committed to a monogamous relationship? No one. Exactly. No one Spanish and Bi anyway. Lance wasn’t even in Spanish...

“You guys are late.” Pidge stated.

“You know whose fault it is.” Hunk sighed back and the conversation was immediately dropped, replaced by Lance’s excessive speech about how  _ good _ a party this was going to be.

Pidge didn’t live far from the frat houses so it only took a few minutes to hear the loud chatter of dozens of teenagers piling into a house. The three joined the line going in and when they finally entered Lance’s jaw almost dropped. 

Lance looked around with the biggest smile on his face. He’d been to a fair few frat parties in his time, some good and some bad, and this was definitely one of the good ones. The entire house was lit up a deep purple from various strobe lights positioned around the room, Lance could make out balloons floating against the ceiling with streaming hanging down from pieces of furniture.

It was still considerably early for a frat party and yet the entire house was packed. Lance took hold of Pidge and Hunk’s hands as the group made their way through the large crowd. Pidge had ripped their hand from Lance’s immediately but at least Hunk was bro enough to hold on. 

The three made their way to the kitchen where a very… drunk young girl was passing out cups of suspicious brown liquid in red plastic cups.

“Hi.” She giggled sweetly. “Welcome to Sigma Alpha Pi.”

“Nice to be here.” Lance smirked as he sauntered over to her.

“Try one of our signature cocktails. They say that anyone who can bomb this drink is granted one wish.”

“What if my wish is to take you out for dinner.” Lance chuckled, resting his elbow on the counter and leaned in to whisper to her.

He was faintly aware of Hunk and Pidge watching with amused faces but Lance was on form and he wasn’t going to let any person pass by him without making them feel special.

“Oh?” The girl blinked in shock before her face fell, smile gone. “It's a drink dude. Just drink it and don't fuck up the house too much.”

Lance frowned as she thrusted a drink into his hand before beckoning over Lance's friends and handing them drinks too, all the while the two gremlins were sniggering and giggling into their hands.

The three exited the kitchen, Lance well and truly shut down but his confidence unwavering thus it didn't take long for him to start winking and finger gunning individuals in the room.

“Lance do you have to?” Pidge groaned. “People are staring.”

“Just letting everyone know that I'm tall, bi and ready to try anything they throw at me.” Lance winked at another girl who passed them and then finger gunned what he could only assume was her boyfriend walking behind her. “Everyone knows that finger guns is a bi thing. So the more I do it the better my chances.”

“Okay, Lance.” Hunk sighed in disappointment. The group reached the corner of the room, by the bottom of the staircase when suddenly they saw Allura enter through the front door and catch sight of them.

She smiled as she approached and all four gave their short greetings before Allura stared down at the drinks in their hand with distaste.

“... That'll kill you, by the way.” She sighed. “It's just a mixture of spirits with a small dribble of orange juice for the taste.”

“Fantastic.” Lance smirked, lifting the drink to his mouth and taking a long swig. Regretting it instantly as the fire liquid burned down his throat and sat simmering in his stomach. “Okay. Okay. That was a mistake.”

Pidge rolled their eyes as they lifted the cup to their lips and took their own sip. Humming in acceptance when they swallowed.

“You're like 12?” Lance gawped. “How can you drink that?”

“My baby milk was whiskey and my fruit boxes were tequila.” Pidge shrugged. The group gawped at them and Pidge shuffled uncomfortably before caving. “My brother and I used to sneak drinks from our parents drink cabinet when we were younger. Built up a tolerance. Calm down.”

“Anyway, guys,” Allura called out over the shouts of the building crowd, suddenly pushing the three as best she could through the masses. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

As Lance escaped the large group of teens currently dancing it up, he noticed that Allura was leading them out into the front yard. Lance stopped to let Allura step in front and followed her close in tow, Pidge and Hunk on either side of him.

Once they reached outside they simple stepped to the side where Allura stopped and took hold of a young man's hand who’d been looking off into the distance. 

“Everyone. I’d like you to meet Shiro.”

Lance tried to stare around Allura’s body which was currently blocking Lance’s view of the stranger but when he did his mouth visibly dropped open. The figure ahead of him was… A specimen to be sure. He towered over Lance’s now seemingly puny 5 foot 10 inches high, probably reaching way over 6ft and bulked out a lot further too, with toned muscles constricted against his football jersey.

A football player. Good call Allura.

His hair was deep brown, almost black, except for the tiny gathering of hair around his fringe which seemed to be a little lighter but Lance couldn’t tell for sure given the darkness of the night.

“Hi.” The god of a man smiled shyly, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck. “Nice to meet you, I’m Shiro. Allura’s told me a lot about you guys.”

“Hi there. Name’s Hunk.” Hunk smiled and took the elder man’s hand firmly, Lance widened his eyes, even Hunk looked small compared to the guy and Hunk wasn’t shy about loving his constant food baby bod.

“Hi.” Pidge grinned next and reached forward. “Nice to see you again, Shiro. Did you end up finding that book you were looking for somewhere else?”

“Oh.” Shiro blushed and shot a look to Allura who appeared to be blushing as well. “No. I’ll just buy it online in a few days hopefully.”

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lance faintly recognised the voice. He frowned as he tried to remember where, which Shiro caught and immediately gulped in worry.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to stare.” Lance spoke up. “I just recognised your voice… Are you on the college radio?”

Shiro furrowed his eyebrows in confusion but shook his head. “No? But people tell me I sound a little like Josh Keaton.”

“Hmm that might be it.” Lance smiled as he stepped forward and immediately took Shiro's hand to shake. “So you're the one who's been taking care of the princess. We thank you for your efforts.”

“Lance, don't make it weird.” Pidge groaned behind him. 

“Lance. I have asked you politely not to call me that.” Allura sighed after. 

Shiro chuckled uncomfortably but, to his credit, rolled with the pretence and shook Lance's hand back. “It has been my pleasure. She's an amazing women.”

“Wise man.” Lance smirked. “So… Are we going inside? I saw at least five guys with my name on their asses that I need to get to.”

“Not yet.” Allura rolled her eyes but she was still smiling. “We’re just waiting for Shiro’s brother. He’s a student here too and we thought it’d be good if we did all the introductions at the same time.”

“Nice idea.” Pidge smiled. “So when is he getting here?”

“Well…” Shiro rubbed at his neck again. “Sorry but he’s actually running late so it could be anytime and- Oh wait there he is. I see him.”

The group turned in unison to where Shiro was waving over at someone making their way towards them through the dark, Lance watched as they cut across the grass, hands thrown into their pockets with their long hair falling in front of his eyes.

Suddenly, the stranger froze just a few feet away from the group and Lance wasn’t sure but it seemed like he was staring right at him. A couple of seconds passed before the stranger loudly groaned.

“Oh for fuck sake.” The stranger growled. “Shiro, seriously?”

Shiro looked back at the stranger in confusion, he must’ve been thinking for a while before he turned back the group, suddenly his eyes widened in surprise and looked back to the stranger again, then back to the group where it remained for a few seconds. 

“What did you say your name was?” He gulped apprehensively as he stared right in Lance’s direction, Lance cocked his head to the side in confusion and Shiro took a cautious step backwards from the group. “Lance right?”

“Yeah?” Lance frowned, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion as he tried to look around Shiro at the stranger who stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

Oh fuck.

Oh fuck.

“Oh fuck…” Lance hung his head in shame. “I knew your voice was familiar, Shiro.”

From the shadows of the night, Lance watched as Keith Kogane stepped forward, his body pressing hard against tight clothing so that even in this light Lance could see the muscles of his arms, the curve of his waist, the long slender neck. Unlike earlier, Keith looked a lot better now, a lot less messy and a lot more classy. His hair was smooth and draped over his head and neck in a way that only Keith Kogane could pull off.

“The fuck are you doing here?” Keith growled in Lance’s direction.

“None of your business.” Lance snapped back immediately. 

Keith glared at Lance for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to the others, his expression softening slightly. “Hunk, Pidge, it’s good to see you both. It’s been too long.”

Lance felt Hunk freeze up behind him before the elder boy let out a short breath of relief. “Yeah. How’ve you been?”

“Good.” Keith nodded politely. “It’s been a good year. Glad to be out of that boring ass town that’s for sure.”

Hunk laughed uncomfortably before Pidge stepped forward and spoke with a drop of sharpness in their tone. “Well we actually grew up in that town so for us it’s not that boring of a place to leave.”

Keith widened his eyes slightly in surprise before opening his mouth into a sharp grin, matching the amount of sharpness. “Well you were always the type to stay inside all the time so I suppose the change of scenery has done nothing for you guys.”

“Keith.” Shiro warned. 

“It’s less the scenery and more the good company that made the move so easy for me. It’s good to actually have friends to rely on.” Pidge grinned right back. Lance could tell Pidge wasn’t even holding back on the tone now, just throwing words out like knives. “Friends make everything easier.”

“Pidge.” Hunk shot a worried look around the circle before opting to grab the young child by the scruff of the shirt and pulling them back behind the two elder boys facing off against the Keith. 

“I can imagine friends like  _ that _ -” Keith gave a pointed evil look towards Lance. “- clinging to you and following you around will get tiring after a while. Try not to dump them too hard.”

“What like you-” 

Hunk’s hand immediately covered the young spitfires mouth and held them back without letting them speak another word. 

“You guys haven’t changed.” Keith whispered bitterly. “Still a group of morons who do nothing but-”

“Keith.” Shiro suddenly snapped up once more. “That’s enough.”

The group faded into an awkward silence that lasted over a minute before Shiro finally spoke up again with a loud, exasperated sigh.

“I’m sorry everyone.” Shiro gulped. “Maybe we shouldn’t have done this after all.”

Lance looked to Allura who suddenly looked absolutely devastated, her head dropping to look at the floor as she played with her fingers in front of her, Lance couldn’t hide from the smack of guilt that pelted him across the head. 

“No!” Lance gasped. 

Five pairs of eyes turned to look at him, each with a different expression.

“I mean-” Lance gulped nervously. “This is good, I’m glad that I get to meet the guy who had clearly been making Allura very happy these last few months. Plus it's always nice to put a face to a name, she could barely stop talking about you earlier.”

Allura immediately blushed bright red. “Lance, don’t lie, it’s unbecoming.”

Lance shot a knowing look to Hunk and Pidge behind him who couldn’t help but throw the same look back, before all three all in sync reached to cover the smiles that spread across their cheeks.

“You’re right, Allura.” Pidge continued to hide their smile behind their hand. “Lying is unbecoming.”

“Right. Okay. Shall we go inside? Not much of a party outside is it?” Allura laughed nervously before lightly pushing Pidge and Lance back towards the front door, anything to stop them from embarrassing her any further. 

“You’re so cute, Allura.” Hunk chuckled, only to be then pushed himself back towards the party inside. 

Lance lagged slightly behind Allura, Hunk and Pidge as the group made their way inside and he was just about able to catch the conversation of the two brothers behind him as they walked. 

“Keith.” Lance heard Shiro grumble quietly under his breath. “I understand this is going to be difficult for you but please. These are Allura’s friends and I really want all of us to get along.”

Shortly after, Keith snorted but he must have agreed as the pair fell silent just as the group entered through the front door and into the thick of the party where good classic tunes were blaring out at top volume from someone’s speakers.

Allura walked the group through the house until they reached a point at the bottom of the stairs where the music wasn’t as blaring as everywhere else.

“Right. I suppose this is the point where I go mingle with some people on my course. Pidge, you come with me, there’s this girl I want you to meet, she’s on the same course as you but in her third year. It might be handy for you-”

“Say no more.” Pidge smiled evilly in Lance’s direction. “Anything to get away from this looming aura that Lance and Keith are emitting right now.”

Lance glared hard at the short first year but they just replied by turning and poking their tongue out in Lance’s direction before being pulled away by Allura with Shiro following slightly behind them leaving the three second years to their own devices. 

“Umm…” Hunk coughed awkwardly, Lance felt a pang of pity for him. Hunk wasn’t usually good in these kind of situations, not that they made these sort of situations a habit obviously but it seemed they’d had more than enough for a lifetime just in the last 24 hours alone. 

“Sorry about earlier.” Keith grumbled to break the silence. “History y’know.”

Hunk nodded his head in understanding, Lance watched his shoulders drop as he began to relax almost immediately. “Don’t worry I get it man, and if we’re going to be spending more time together now it’s probably for the best that we all let the past go and let bygones be bygones. Right, Lance?”

Lance immediately rolled his eyes, not even bothering to hide his discontent. “Sure, buddy.”

Keith shot Lance a glare and Lance returned it with added oomph. 

“Right…” Hunk coughed awkwardly. “Well… You two seem like you’re going to be fine. I’m gonna go and get myself another drink.”

Lance, still with his cup in hand, looked down at his full cup and let out a sigh before bringing it to his lips and downing the entirety of its contents before hanging the cup to Hunk. “You couldn’t grab one for me as well could you buddy?”

Hunk smiled good naturally before nodding and leaving the two boys to their own devices. 

“Well. Bye.” Lance nodded immediately to Keith before quickly taking off towards the dance floor. There was no way he was being left alone with Keith, that was just a bad idea of itself. If provoked, Lance would instantly fight the guy if he had to, and Keith was definitely the provoking kind. 

For a while, Lance just danced on his own, at some point Hunk caught up with and gave him his new drink. The housemates danced together for a while but Hunk wasn’t really the dancing type and quickly caught sight of Pidge and Keith talking by the stairs and made his way over to them, leaving Lance to his own devices.

Not that Lance minded, this is how parties usually went for him, he’d stand in the dance floor shaking his things and grinding his hips until he spotted a hottie making eyes at him and find his fun for the night.

“It should be illegal to dance like that in public.” A voice suddenly purred in Lance’s ear.

Speaking of fun. Lance slowly turned around to the beat of the music, not stopping his moves for a second as he caught sight of his hottie. Lance almost choked on the air he was breathing as he breathed deep in shock.

He’d been hoping for a hottie but he definitely hadn’t expected this. The guy towered over Lance, with dark chocolate skin and thick dreads that curled down past his shoulders. He wasn’t dressed particularly fancy, just a pair of dark blue jeans and a regular plain black t-shirt but, oh, he filled it so well.

“What are you going to do about it?” Lance purred back in response.

“I’ll show you.” The guy growled back and suddenly pulled Lance against him, pushing his leg between Lance’s rubbing his thigh against Lance’s groin as the two grinded deep and dirty to the music. “Shit. You’re the hottest piece in this room.”

“Careful you don’t burn.” Lance leaned up and pressed his teeth softly into the guys lower neck, since that was as high as he could reach. 

The two danced for a while longer, grinding against one another and Lance did everything he could to hide every little whine and moan that escaped his lips, but he had to be honest, it had been a while and this guy was touching all the right places.

“How about I get you a drink and meet you back here in a few minutes and then we have our own little party outside?” The stranger purred.

Lance moaned soft and low into the strangers ear as a particular grind of his knee rubbed Lance entirely in the good way. “That sounds like a plan to me.”

“I’ll be keeping my eye out for you, gorgeous.” The stranger pulled back and gave Lance one final twirl before disappearing through the crowd in the direction of the kitchen. 

Since Lance had a couple of minutes, he turned and spotted his entire group staring right at him, a mixture of emotions from every one of them.

Lance walked back to the group feeling like a million bucks. He knew something good was going to fall at his feet tonight but he wasn’t expecting the gods to give him a thumbs up and send down one of their own for Lance to play with. He might just have to do his part and get on his knees tonight and pray to those gods. 

“Hello all.” Lance smirked, swaying softly from side to side to the beat of the music. 

“Look at you, you’re practically beaming.” Pidge gagged. “After we just had to watch a scene out of a gay porn.”

“Who were you just dancing with?” Hunk smiled sweetly while still shaking his head like a disappointed parent, Lance electing to ignore Pidge’s words. “I say dancing, I feel like that was a bit too… much… to be called dancing.”

“I don’t know his name.” Lance shrugged. “He just came up to me and started dancing with me. He is gorgeous though, like did you see his hair? I just wanted to pull on it till the stars cry.”

“T M I.” Keith grumbled under his breath, to which Lance just rolled his eyes and ignored him. 

Allura was pulling the same expression as Hunk but it was nice to know she was also on his side and wasn’t totally against Lance trying to look for some action. I mean, it’s not like he did this often. He’d only pulled a few times since coming to university and only one or two had Lance actually gone home with them at the end of the night.

… And it’s not like he fucked either of those two either.

“So where has he gone?” Shiro asked, one arm tied around Allura’s waist. He didn’t blame him, Lance could feel the eyes of several guys around them looking at Allura, trying to see if there was an opening, at least with Shiro around her he could at least stake his claim and save her from any unwanted and awkward attention.

“He’s just gone to get a couple of drinks for us. Then we might head outside and just hang out for a bit. Y’know… Maybe visit the land of the french if you know what I mean.”

“I wouldn't, Lance.” Pidge pulled down on Lance's arm to get his attention. “I’m pretty sure I know him, well not know him but I heard some girls talking in my lecture earlier and the way they described him sounds just like that dude, he’s one of those guys on the basketball team who sleeps around and treats the people he’s with like shit.”

Lance scoffed in disbelief. “No way. That guy was clearly looking for a piece of the Lance and who would I be to deny him? Besides. It’s only for one night.”

“Pidge is right. That guy is a nasty piece of work, a friend of mine slept with him a while back and the guy had been a lot more forceful than he’d wanted.” Keith growled. 

Lance turned to Keith immediately, not even bothering to hide the bitterness in his eyes and venom in his voice.

“Well maybe I like it a little rougher?” 

“Lance!” Allura gasped.

Lance hadn’t meant what he said. If they guy really had been unnecessarily violent that made him a disgusting piece of filth that Lance would much rather fight than fuck, but he wasn’t just going to take Keith’s word for it, and all Lance wanted to do was disagree with everything Keith was saying.

“Lance, I think you've had a few too many now.” Hunk leaned in closer to Lance to whisper. “You don't go for those sorts of guys.”

“I told you, Hunk. Everything's changing tonight. I'm feeling the winds of change blowing right up my ass.” Lance winked, rolling his hips with the music. “Who knows. If that guy plays his cards right, maybe I’ll go back to his place and give him a bit of the Lance love.”

Keith snorted from the corner of Lance’s eye. “That makes you a fucking idiot.”

“Listen, Keith, why don’t you do everyone a favour and mind your own damn business? Just ‘cause some people around here actually can get laid.” 

Keith growled, his body tensing up towards Lance as he spoke. “Can you though? ‘Cause it seems to me that you’re just going for some asshole.”

“Well… I suppose you could say that’s what I’m used to.” Lance snarled. “I’ve only ever really gone for guys who are massive assholes all of which had the personality of a sock.”

“Lance, enough.” Pidge slapped at Lance’s arm hard but Lance pretended not to notice and kept his eyes fully locked on Keith Kogane. “Don’t do this here.”

Keith took a threatening step towards Lance and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “That just says more about you than it does about me. You’re so desperate for anyone who shows you a little bit of attention that you’d sleep with any old asshole who asked.”

Lance slapped his hand away so hard that his own hand began to sting. “Perhaps, but even I’d never sink low enough to sleep with you again!”

“That's it. Enough. Both of you follow me. Right now.” Shiro bellowed, grabbing both teens by their collars and pulling them apart just before they were about to go for each others throats.

The pair glared at each other for another second before Shiro gave them both a gentle push towards the stairs.

Lance and Keith made their way across and up the stairs, Lance walking slightly ahead with Shiro bringing up the rear with his rear. 

Once Lance reached the top he stopped and waited for Shiro to join him and usher the two across the balcony and into one of the open door bedrooms.

“Just stay in there and don’t come out until you two are prepared to act like adults.” Shiro growled as he gave the pair a light shove into the room. He didn’t pause for another word before shutting the door behind him.

It’s not like he locked it behind him but Lance still managed to feel kinda trapped in here, with anyone else it might be fun but with his angry ex, not so great. 

To make things just that little bit sweeter, said ex was currently glaring at him from barely a meter away and Lance couldn’t help but shuffle uncomfortably from one foot to the other. 

“This is your fault, by the way.” Keith growled when he figured Lance wasn’t going to address the staring thing. “You acted like a child so Shiro treated you like one, sadly I’m the asshole who managed to get dragged along with you.”

“Glad to know you at least recognise the fact that you’re an asshole.”

“You’re so fucking annoying.” Keith growled, reaching upwards and rubbing at his temples in irritation. 

“Takes one to know one.” Lance shot back immediately, almost glad this his friends weren’t around anymore because that comeback wasn’t really one of his best.

Keith rolled his eyes before growling once more and walking away to the bed, throwing himself down onto it without a second thought. “You haven’t changed at all then. Still as stupid and idiotic as before.”

“Smart enough to stay the hell away from you for an entire year.” Lance mumbled more to himself than anything but Keith heard and craned his neck to shoot Lance a disgusted glare.

“Stupid enough to not do what any normal person would do and just ignore me for the entirety of tonight.” Keith muttered from the bed. “But  _ oh no,  _ Mister Lance McClain just had to try and poke and pick a fight because he’s too stupid to consider doing the opposite.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Lance snapped back, deciding to just sit himself down on the floor rather than decrease the already too small distance between Keith and himself. “You’re not even worth my time to argue with.”

“Still managed it though.” 

“God. Why can’t you just be nice like Shiro? Shiro seems amazing and sweet and kind, the absolute opposite of you. How is that even possible when he practically raised you?” Lance was whining more to himself than anything, he hadn’t expected Keith to answer but he could almost feel Keith’s anger boiling from here.

“Don’t do that.” Keith snapped back immediately. “Don’t talk like you know everything just ‘cause you can loosely remember a few details from high school.”

“Whatever, Keith.” Lance growled from the floor, deciding now was the time to stand up and walk over to Keith who was still spread across the bed. “We’re not out of here until we make nice so I hope you’re ready for a long night.”

Keith sat up and stood up to his feet, standing face to face with Lance with an angry snarl spread across his cheeks. “With you? No thanks.”

“You’ve got the sweeter end of the deal. You’re stuck with Obama, while I’m stuck with Trump.”

“I'm seriously about a second away from punching you in the nose.”

“Bring it, mullet brain.” Lance growled, squaring up and taking full advantage of that full inch he had over Keith in height. Their chests pressed together tightly but Keith had raised his arms to grab at Lance’s upper hands and was digging in his fingers so hard Lance almost worried that his accompanying nails would jab through and scar Lance’s flawless skin.

“It had to be you didn’t it?” Keith snarled back. “I thought I’d finally managed to get away from you.”

“Well, sorry, baby!” Lance practically sang. “We’re stuck with each other. So you better pull your head out your ass and start preparing to make nice. For Shiro.”

Keith snarled and suddenly pulled at Lance, throwing him behind him so Lance fell onto the bed face first. Lance whipped around onto his back but didn’t stand up again as Keith stalked towards him like a predator. 

Keith’s hands stretched and roughly grabbed at Lance’s shoulders, pulling him up into the seated position and staring deep into Lance’s soul.

Lance isn’t sure what possessed him at the moment, maybe it was the drink floating around in his system, maybe it was the past, or maybe it was just the fact that Keith looked phenomenal in those jeans but one second Lance was reaching his hands up as if to grab at Keith’s throat but the next they were tangling round the shorter boys neck and sharply yanking them into one another. 

Their lips met and for a minute Lance was surprised by the lack of angels singing and bird song- Just like Lance’s mind had convinced him a kiss with Keith would be like after the last year and a bit they’d had apart- but when Keith began to respond against him immediately, the silence didn’t matter and Lance wasted no time running his tongue against Keith’s bottom lip.

Keith began to climb on top of him on the bed, effectively laying Lance down while he himself sat comfortably on Lance’s stomach and leaning down to keep kissing, their teeth clashed and every soft moan that Keith let loose was like another penny into the “big turn on” jar of Lance’s mind. 

Lance growled animalistically through the kiss immediately as Keith grabbed him by the waist, his fingers digging in and pulled him higher up the bed roughly, their half hard erections sliding against one another causing both boys to let out loud, angry, gasps.

“Don’t make a fucking sound.” Keith mumbled against Lance’s lips before his hands explored further and cupped Lance’s ass tightly, giving it a rough squeeze. It took a lot for Lance to bite back a corresponding moan but he managed as he tangled his fingers up in Keith’s hair, giving occasional sharp pulls and rough tugs.

“Like you could make me.” 


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically just a chapter of smut (my first try at smut too so sorry if it's not up to the gold standard). 
> 
> If you're not interested in reading it you can just glaze over the chapter. Less cheeky things will continue in Chapter Five

“ _ Fuck _ .” Lance rolled his hips back against Keith as best as he could but Keith kept him almost frozen in space keeping him pegged between Keith’s rock hard chest and the bedroom wall. The two had moved from the bed a few minutes ago, Lance almost trying to escape but Keith had pinned him up against the wall, Keith’s chest on Lance’s back, Lance’s shirt already lost somewhere.

“Keep it down.” Keith grunted back. “I wouldn’t want to get caught like this with you.”

“Shut the fuck up, Keith.” Lance growled back with another moan. “If you don’t wanna get caught that bad then get off me and leave.”

Keith growled instinctively as Lance tried to step away, spinning him around to face him and pinned his wrists up above his head with only one hand. The other hand trailed down Lance’s chest until he sank down to Lance’s thighs, venturing in. Lance opened his legs further on reflex and waited impatiently for Keith to touch him where he really wanted it. 

“Don’t act like you don’t want this unless you mean it.” Keith growled. “If  _ you _ don’t want to. We won’t. If you do, shut up and take your clothes off.”

Lance growled as he pulled one hand from Keith’s grip to reach down between the two and palmed at Keith’s fully hard erection hidden behind those tight jeans. Keith’s breath hitched.

“I could say the same to you.” Lance whispered. “I want this Keith, give it to me.”

Keith nodded his head, grinning, before releasing Lance’s other wrist and sinking to his knees. 

It didn't take long before Keith was pulling at Lance’s jeans, popping the button and dragging them down Lance’s long slender legs. There was no pausing or taking their time, they both wanted something and were determined to get it. Lance stepped out of the jeans once they reached his ankles but had little time to think of what would happen next as suddenly Keith reached around Lance’s body and trailed his fingers from Lance’s navel down to cup his hard erection through his boxers. 

“Look at you. So hard already. You’ve been waiting for me to do this.”

“Well actually… Basketball guy started me off but sure if you wa-”

“Don’t fucking talk about that guy.” Keith snarled, instantly raising to his feet and spinning Lance around to face him. “He’s not the one fucking you right now. Don’t even fucking think about him.”

“Sorry.” Lance whispered without even meaning to. Something in Keith’s eyes made him want to be good for him, to do exactly as he said, maybe it was the inner kinky Lance coming forward earlier.

Keith nodded his head before he leaned back into Lance’s neck and began to suck harshly at the skin there. 

A few minutes passed just like that, Lance just trying his best to hold on as Keith continued his work on Lance’s neck.

“Please, Keith. Stop teasing.”

Keith nodded as he leaned forward to purr deep into Lance’s ear. “Wrap your legs around me.”

“What?” Lance blinked in surprise, the lust cloud slightly dispersing for a moment. “You wouldn’t be able to carry me.”

“I can manage, Lance. Just do it.”

Following orders as best he could, Lance apprehensively jumped up and wrapped his legs around Keith’s waist as if he was holding on for dear life. He wasn’t expecting Keith to be able to hold him so easily but as Keith placed his hands to grab a hold of Lance’s thighs it seemed like he was putting in barely any effort at all to keep the boy in the air.

“You’ve gotten stronger.” Lance purred, nuzzling his face into Keith’s hair as he was carried to the bed.

“This isn’t my first time doing this.” Keith grumbled back, Lance was about to pull back with a couple of questions but Keith sensed it and immediately silenced Lance with his lips again.

The two reached the bed and Lance felt his calves lean down onto it as Keith slowly lowered him down onto his back before completely releasing him and standing up again.

Lance looked at Keith expectantly, he could feel the redness in face like he was burning in the sun, it didn’t help that he was pretty much naked and Keith hadn’t even managed to pull his shirt off yet.

“You look good.” Keith growled, looking at Lance like nothing more than prey beneath him. “I bet you do this all the time. Open yourself up for anyone who pays you a bit of attention.”

Lance winced at the words causing Keith to roll his eyes before leaning in. Placing an unexpectedly sweet kiss quickly on the lips.

“It’s sexy talk, Lance, just go with it.”

“O-Oh.” Lance gulped. “W-Well… D-Does that make you mad? Knowing that you’re not the only one who gets to see me like this.”

Keith grinned eagerly before capturing Lance’s lips again, suckling harshly on his bottom lip. Lance moaned into the feeling and tried to rub himself against Keith, looking for any sort of friction that would relieve the throbbing pain within his boxers.

“Such an impatient slut you are.” Keith mumbled with another smirk. “So desperate to get off that you’re rubbing against me like some bitch in heat.”

“Maybe if you weren’t wearing so many clothes and were actually doing something I wouldn’t need to resort to such desperate measures.” Lance grumbled under his breath.

Keith nodded his head, the only thing he’d agreed with Lance on all night, before sitting up once more and yanking his shirt over his head. Immediately, Lance felt his jaw drop open as he stared up at, what could only be described as, a masterpiece above him.

Keith had changed a lot. Gone were the chubby hips and podgy belly. Gone were the paper thin, stick insect arms. Gone was the scrawny boney chest and poke-y out collar bone.

He looked good. Muscled in every place that mattered and toned everyone else. 

“Want to take a picture?” Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance’s lust filled look.

Lance shrugged. “Kinda.”

Keith let out a surprised huff of air before reaching for his belt and undoing his trousers. Lance watched with eagerness as he slowly rolled them down his legs and kicked them off, leaving him in nothing but a tight pair of blue boxers which didn’t leave much to the imagination. Not that that was a problem, Lance remembered that part of Keith pretty well so he wasn’t surprised to see him almost bursting out of his shorts as he leaned in.

Lance lifted his legs and placed them on Keith’s hips from his lying position and slowly pulled him in, coaxing Keith down to lay on top of him. 

“What are you after?” Keith smirked as Lance reached up to try and pull Keith down that little bit further but Keith just held himself up, dangling his lips just out of Lance’s reach.

“Kiss me, asshole.” Lance growled impatiently. 

“You’re still needy, then.” Keith smirked but gave Lance what he wanted, pressing their lips tight together before both opening up to brush their tongues against each other. Lance moaned like a porn star into the kiss, getting louder and louder with each passing second as their erections rubbed against each other.

“Fuck, Keith.” Lance whimpered. “I want you.”

“Hush.” Keith stood up slowly, escaping Lance’s grabby hands. 

Lance lifted his hips up from the edge of the bed and Keith immediately, and roughly, yanked his boxer shorts down his legs and off. Keith let out another animal like growl as he threw the the fabric haphazardly behind him and stared down at Lance’s totally bare body on display.

“I’ve barely touched you and you look wrecked.” 

“Imagine what I’ll look like after.” Lance purred, feeling his confident inflating with every wanting look that Keith offered him. “If we ever get there.”

Keith snorted as he slipped his fingers into the waistband of his own boxers and teasingly slipped them down his thighs. Lance watched every move, his tongue falling out of his mouth for a second as he pictured those bare thighs on either side of his head like ear muffs.

“Sit up.” Keith suddenly instructed as he moved over and positioned himself down at the head of the bed, his back leaning against the headboard, beckoning Lance over with the bend of his finger. “I’ve got a much better seat for you right here.”

Lance gulped, almost speechless at this point, as he crawled across the bed and over into Keith’s lap. He rested his knees on either side of Keith’s legs and let out a quiet gasp as their bare erections rubbed together. 

Keith grabbed both of their erections in one hand and began to slowly stroke down them together, his pace started slow and long at first but soon descended into sharp quick tugs that caused Lance to arch himself further into Keith’s chest. 

“Fuck.” Keith purred as he quickened his pace. “You’re so hot, Lance, make me want to open you up and fuck into you until you’re a weeping mess beneath me. Begging for me like the slut you are.”

“Alright, Rango,” Lance growled but it came out more as a pant as Lance felt his end quickly approaching already. “Let’s go easy on the sexy talk now. You’re getting distracting.”

“You wanna talk distracting?” Keith moaned in response. “Distracting was that tight little shirt you were wearing earlier. Made me want to rip it off your body the second I saw you so I could reach those perfect nipples of yours.”

Lance was surprised by the louder groan that tore through his throat. “Not in front of everyone…”

“Yes.” Keith growled. “In front of Pidge and Hunk. Imagine that, your best friends watching as I tear you apart, I’ll sink down to my knees and take you in my mouth and all you can do is watch them, your fingers tangled into my hair and fucking my mouth, getting harder as you watch me choke on your cock, then when you cum, you’ll call my name out and watch as their faces twist in disgust.”

Lance gasped, throwing his head back as Keith continued to stroke him at a torturous speed. “K-Keith! I’m go- I’m gonna cum.”

“You want them to watch don’t you? Filthy slut. You wanna see the look on their faces as I swallow your cum right in front of them. Don’t you?”

“N-N-N-” Lance stuttered as he felt himself thrust upwards involuntarily into Keith’s hand. “S-stop. Keith I can’t- I’m gonna-  _ Ohh! Fuck. _ ”

Lance came with another sharp couple of pulls from Keith’s hand, they both paused for a second catching their breath back before Keith let out a shaky laugh. 

“So… A humiliation kink?” Keith smirked. “Is that new?”

“Fuck. Off. Keith.” Lance cursed between breaths, his back returning to its normal position before he slumped down onto Keith’s chest, burying his face in his neck. “Why did you have to make it weird?”

Keith chuckled again while Lance nuzzled into his hair, Lance trying desperately not to think about the fact that that was the best orgasm he’d had in years. 

Lance, after a couple more minutes of silence, gulped. “Did you-”

“No.” Keith whispered. “I’d rather do it while we’re fucking. You’ve still got that great short refractory period, right?”

Keith reached between them and used his fingers to trace shapes over Lance’s chest, then down to his stomach then even lower, dancing between Lance’s inner thighs.

“Keith-” Lance keened under Keith’s touch, oversensitive and shaking. His refractory not as good as it used to be if he was totally honest. “Do you really- Do you really want this?”

“Yeah, I want it. Get on your knees so I can fuck you senseless.” Keith growled primitively.

“Wait, what? Why am I the bottom?” Lance suddenly sat back, fully awake again, and gawped in shock. Keith gently pushed Lance off of him and jumped up from the bed. Lance watched as he walked across the room and reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a handy size bottle of lube and a condom. “Ew. Why do you keep those on you?”

“Never know when sluts like you are going to spread your legs for me.” Keith smirked evilly back at him.

Lance snorted in disgust. “Excuse me. I just asked why I’m the bottom. No way am I the one who’s spreading. You can spread.”  

“Not even if you paid me.” Keith suddenly growled back in response. “Either you’re on the bottom or this isn’t happening. Have fun going back to the party with that massive hard-on you’re sporting… Already.”

“Keith- I can’t-” Lance gulped, looking to see that his own cock was already back and ready for more… Okay, maybe his slower refractory was reserved for post masturbation only because it had been well over a year since Lance had been this quick to recover. But still! That wasn’t the point here! The time and place was all wrong for Lance to be going through this conversation, extremely intrigued to a point of nearly desperate for it or not. “I haven’t.... Bottomed before.”

Keith blinked down at him in surprise, his previous irritation lessening slightly. “Really? Not once?”

“No!” Lance blushed and looked away from Keith’s violet eyes that seemed to bore into him. “I don’t actually just sleep around, that was just sexy talk like you said.”

“Oh.” Keith thought for a second. “Well… I can go easy on you, if you want. I’m not a dick, I won’t do anything you don’t want to.”

“... What do you mean go easy?”

“... Lance. I’m not going to narrate, I just know what I’m doing so if you want to continue you don’t have to worry.” Keith rolled his eyes. 

Lance looked at him, cocking his head to the side to consider it. This had already gone past the point of return so what did it matter if Lance pushed just that little bit further, try something new, and Keith seemed confident in his abilities. Lance could trust that confidence if nothing else, right?

“Okay.” Lance whispered, adjusting his body so he lay properly down the bed, bending his knees to expose himself slightly. “I suppose I can trust you.”

Lance didn’t miss the slight upward twerk at the corner of Keith’s lips but rather than continue he leaned in to an almost maddening distance, close enough to probably feel Lance’s pounding heartbeat through his chest but not close enough to press those soft, surprisingly unchapped lips against Lance’s.

“You need to say it.” Keith smirked. “Clear and concise,  _ Lance _ .”

The purr of his name falling from Keith’s mouth plunged an emotion that Lance pictured is what taking Heroine felt like. Addictive from the first hit. 

“K-Keith.” Lance gulped, his voice shaky from how much he actually wanted this. “I-I want this. P-Please.”

It felt strange to say please when he wasn’t currently on the edge of sanity, Lance had never been much of a beggar in bed, of the small amount of people he had experienced… cheeky times with, it had never been intense enough where Lance felt like his manners were a necessary section of dialogue but with Keith, it almost felt like second nature. Nostalgic almost. Like entering a childhood home, strange but no less familiar. 

Keith grinned before gently tapping the outside of Lance’s thigh. “Good boy. Flip over onto your knees. It won’t be as uncomfortable from that angle.”

Lance elected to ignore the jump in his stomach at Keith’s compliment, nor did he acknowledge the immediate pull at his heart as he did as Keith suggested, a position that would make this less painful? Lance knew all about the pain of a first time bottomer, he’d coached Keith through it himself once upon a time but he didn’t have helpful tips like that at the time. Keith had been teaching himself some things these last few years clearly. 

Breaking him from his thoughts, Lance caught the click of the lube bottle from behind his back and twisted as best as he could to watch, resting his face against the pillows, his butt sticking straight up into the air as he craned his neck back to watch as Keith slowly coated his fingers in the lube and began to graze one finger from the small of Lance’s back and down until they softly glided across his rim.

Electricity immediately shot through him and he found himself desperate to rock backwards into Keith as if to spur him forward but without another word, Keith lifted his hand to Lance’s waist and held him tightly still. 

A few moments of teasing and circling ensued and Lance honestly thought that this was enough, that he could get off on this alone but eventually Keith’s hand slipped from his waist to his back and drummed his fingers softly against the caramel skin.

“I’m going to add a finger now. Tell me if you want to stop.” Keith breathed gently and Lance felt it run down his back from where Keith leaned over him.

Lance couldn’t see himself wanting to stop anytime soon but he appreciated the thought from Keith and nodded his head in agreement. 

Slowly, Lance felt the breach he’d been expecting, hoping for rather, but it wasn’t at all like he’d imagined. In fact, it was kind of uncomfortable, intruding almost. It pushed passed the tight ring of Lance’s hole and made to push on but Lance couldn’t stop himself from clenching himself tighter and groaning.

“Shush.” Keith whispered softly, rubbing soothing circles around Lance’s stomach. “It’s okay.”

Keith stayed like that for a few more moments before pushing on slightly again, keeping slow and shallow thrusts that occasionally deepened by the smallest millimeter, as Lance began to grow used to the foreign feeling he began to relax into it, the discomfort shrinking quickly which Keith must have immediately felt as he sunk in that little bit extra, then a little more, then a little more until Lance felt cold, gloved knuckles press against the curve of his ass. 

“How are you feeling?” Keith purred. “Are you ready for more?”

Lance whimpered, he’d wanted to say yes but he felt his voice would betray him if he did, thankfully this time Keith didn’t want for a verbal response and softly began to thrust his finger in and out of Lance’s hole until Lance felt his walls expand and the venture became a lot smoother. So smooth in fact that Keith was able to pick up the pace until he was almost pistoning inside of Lance, causing short broken gasps to fall from the young Cuban’s throat like prayers. 

Lance suddenly felt the twist of Keith’s finger inside him as he slowly began to press and gently scratch against Lance’s inner walls. 

Lance twisted backwards again, craning his neck almost uncomfortably as he met the wanton look of his surprising bed fellow who seemed to be finding it too easy to leave Lance speechless.

“Lose something?” Lance smirked but it was broken with another gasp as suddenly Keith pushed further inside him and pressed against something that had Lance seeing stars.

“Found it now.” Keith winked back, quickening his pace once more but now angling his hand in the exact same position each time. “I’m going to add another finger.”

Lance’s brain was swirling around in fast circles, all he could feel was the harsh push of Keith’s fingers inside him, even harsher when another finger suddenly joined it, (he was already at 3!) working Lance open nice and wide. The fingers punching in at that good angle again until Lance was writhing in the sheets, trying to cling on for dear life.

“ _ Keith! Keith _ !” Lance chanted like a mantra, cantering his hips up and further into Keith’s grip. “ _ There! Fuck, it’s good. There. Yes. _ ”

A few minutes must have passed but for Lance they felt like seconds of pure, unadulterated pleasure that only escalated when Keith leaned further and softly sank his teeth into the juncture of Lance’s throat, not hard enough to hurt but enough to have Lance pulling away weakly and begging for mercy.

“Keith, stop, stop!” Lance cried out. “If you don’t stop I’m going to cum again.”

Lance pressed his eyes tight shut, willing himself not to finish just from Keith’s fingers as Keith slowly began to slow down his pace, but not before aiming a few more well placed shots at Lance’s over sensitive prostate. 

Keith removed his fingers completely and Lance winced at the loss before finally uncurling his back, like releasing a bow pulled tight, and collapsed once more on the bed. He raised one arm to cover his eyes when he felt the beginning of tears build up in the corners of his eyes as he tried to get his breath back.

“Still with us?” Keith smirked, baring his teeth like the Cheshire cat or something. 

“Fuck off.” Lance growled but he was still hard and desperate, panting like he’d run a marathon, so he doubted he came over very threatening. “You’re not that good.”

“Oh really? Then maybe we should call this off now then.” Keith smirked stepping off the bed and heading towards his shirt in the corner of the room.

“Get back here and fuck me.” Lance growled before he’d even registered the words coming out. 

Keith smirked in surprise as he approached once more. “You’re so desperate. Such a slut, wanting me to fill y-”

“Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Filling. Fucking. Slut. Slag. Whore. It’s sexy but can you just fucking fuck me already, you fuck.” Lance immediately sat forward and grabbed at Keith’s neck, pulling him back down into the sheets again for another sloppy, wet make out session. 

“Now.” Lance whimpered against Keith’s lips, guiding Keith’s hand between the bodies to Lance’s red throbbing and leaking length that was desperate for some friction of its own. 

“Fine.” Keith relented with a growl of want.

The bed sank as Keith pulled away, sitting up onto his knees and positioned himself at Lance’s rear. Lance heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper and a few seconds later he felt a brush against his hole. 

“Tell me if you want me to stop or slow down.” Keith whispered before gently pushing the head of his cock through the tightened muscle.

Lance had to bite hard into his hand as Keith slowly entered him from behind. All the porn that Lance watched in his early teens had lied to him. No amount of fingers could have prepared him for the over-filledness he felt as Keith slowly pushed himself deeper.

“Pause a second.” Lance groaned, pulling away from Keith’s pushing just before he stopped. Lance allowed himself a few seconds to adjust, not missing the soothing pattern that Keith carved with his fingers on Lance’s lower back.

“Okay?” Keith grunted after another moment.

“Okay.” Lance gulped, he wasn’t afraid or anything, it was just such a foreign feeling to him. Lance had never been in this position before and to do it here, during a party, in someone else's bed, with his ex being the one to help him adjust. It was all a bit much. 

The bed squeaked as Keith pushed in that little bit further but thankfully this time he stopped rather than spurring on and waiting for Lance to nod his head before pushing in that little bit more.

“Fuck, Lance.” Keith growled low under his breath. “You’re so tight. Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Keith leaned forward so his front was flush against Lance’s back, one hand positioned at Lance’s waist while the other came up and wrapped around Lance’s chest, pulling him tightly. Lance felt lips press down onto his neck followed by the feeling of nips and gentle bites.

Pushing Keith inside further, Lance arched his back into the pleasure causing a rough moan to fall from both of their lips, Keith pushed in the rest of the way until Lance felt Keith’s thighs pressed up tight against his ass.

“Good boy, Lance.” Keith whispered. “Taking it all in so good.”

Lance gulped as Keith remained completely still inside him as his body adjusted. Lance’s erection brushed against the bedsheets softly followed by a long, slutty moan to escape from Lance’s lips. 

“Keith… You can move.” Lance whispered.

Keith grunted in agreement and slowly began to pull out to about half way before slowly pushing in again, the discomfort was there almost like the after effects of a burn but after a few minutes the burn turned into almost a tickle as the pleasure began to consume him, Keith speeding up his thrusts accordingly. 

“Keith!” Lance gasped again.

“What is it you want?” Keith growled, Lance turned to look over his shoulder and could see that Keith was struggling to keep his cool and probably wanted to be going a lot faster than they currently were.

“ _ H-Harder _ .” Lance whimpered, he wanted to be a good partner and do things that his partner wanted and it was pretty obvious that Keith wanted to pound into him like there was no tomorrow.

Keith froze. “Lance-”

“ _ Please. _ ” Lance rolled his hips experimentally and immediately let out another loud, high pitched moan into the pillows. 

Keith didn’t respond but suddenly the thrusts began to be delivered with a lot more oomph, so much in fact that Lance had to grab at the head board just to keep himself from falling forward.

Keith moaned and grunted from above and it was like music to Lance’s ears. To feel this good, with his first being the one to get him there, but there was also such an overwhelming lack of pressure. Lance was a good guy and wanted Keith to enjoy this but there was no nagging at the back of his brain that told him that Keith had to. For all Lance cared, Keith didn’t even have to finish as long as Lance got what he wanted. 

“ _ Oh god! Keith, harder!” _ Lance cried out. “ _ More, more, more _ .”

Keith grunted again and made a hard grab at Lance’s waist, choosing now to yank Lance back into him as he pounded forward, the movement was so hard that the back of Lance’s thighs began to sting from the repeated slap against Keith’s thighs. Even though it stung slightly, it felt unbelievably good and Lance found himself scratching lines across his stomach searching for a similar feeling.

“ _Fuck._ _Keith, I’m close_.” Lance weeped, shoving his head into the pillow to mask some of the whimpers and cries as Keith slowly increased the intensity of his thrusts.

“Me too.”

Barely a minute later, Lance felt the release he’d been hoping for and felt the cum pump out of cock and all over his stomach and the bed sheets beneath him. Immediately after, Keith tensed and let out a low, throaty growl as he gave one final harsh thrust inside of Lance till he was buried to the hilt.

A minute or so passed and Lance felt his discomfort increase, he was about to ask Keith to pull out when the boy seemed to read his thoughts and slowly pulled himself out of Lance as gently as he could before collapsing beside him on the bed.

Lance shivered from a mixture of the atmosphere and the high and found himself wanting to cuddle into Keith’s side but resisted the urge to, 

The two lay there but a moment before Keith suddenly rolled over and got up to his feet, heading into the bathroom to wipe himself down. After he was finished, he tossed the cloth through to Lance who used it to wipe off the cum currently drying all over his stomach. 

“You got cum all over my new ring, Jackass.” Keith called from the bathroom without looking back as he meticulously scrubbed at his fingers. 

Lance rolled his eyes as he leaned over to reach his ass and gave it a quick wipe over with the damp cloth to remove some of the excess lube. “Maybe take the ring off when you jerk someone off then next time, dumbass.”

Keith walked in halfway through the wiping and grimaced. “Fuck sake, Lance. I don’t wanna see that shit.”

“I’m sorry? Who’s ass is a fucking mess in the middle of a senior party right now with a nearly 30 minute walk to get back to their apartment? Mine. So shut up.”

Lance winced as he caught on the sore muscle, immediately discarding the cloth without a second look. Fuck that shit.

“You okay?” Keith asked, actually sounding sincere for once.

“No. I feel like I just had a torpedo shoved up my arse. I’m gonna need a second.” Lance slowly got up to his feet, his hips and arse immediately throbbing so hard that Lance’s knees almost give out from the pain. 

Thankfully, or not thankfully depends how you look at it, Keith was there and snaked an arm around Lance’s waist to hold him up right. “I appreciate you comparing me to a torpedo but I didn’t hear you complaining a minute ago.”

Lance rolled his eyes and pushed Keith away as he felt himself growing steadier holding his own weight up. 

Keith shot him a final smirk before approaching the bed and grabbing his discarded boxers from the end. Lance did the same when he found his boxers hanging from one of the drawer handles. His back clicking as he bent down to slide the fabric up his legs.

Lance thought for a moment before looking back to Keith. “Keith?”

“What?”

“This… didn’t mean anything right?” Lance gulped as he watched Keith search around the room, pulling back on discarded items of clothing, occasionally throwing something of Lance’s onto the bed. Lance waited until he’d pulled his trousers up his legs before turning to face Keith entirely. “Or… Did you want something to come from this this?”

“I’m not interested in that shit.” Keith shot back, not even looking back at Lance. “I slept with you because I thought it would be fun. I don’t even for a second want to get back together if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Lance gulped in shock but tried to recover as best as he could. “Well… I’m glad that makes two of us.’

“Good.” Keith closed the conversation quickly as he found his last article of clothing - his shirt - and threw it over his head, tugging it down and playing around until visually he looked no worse for wear than he had been when Shiro first booted him in here. Well except for his hair of course, their time had clearly ruined whatever do he was sporting before.

Lance approached him before Keith could tuck-tail and run and ran his fingers through the hair to fix some of the mess.

“What are you doing?” Keith frowned up at him but Lance avoided looking him in the eye as he fixed the last section.

“I don’t want anyone to know what happened in here, and you rocking out with sex-hair is a dead giveaway.”

Keith rolled his eyes in irritation. “Pretty sure everyone knows what happened in here because you sound like a dying cow.”

“You’re so much nicer to talk to when you’ve got your dick in something.” Lance growled back, abandoning the mess of hair and choosing instead to grab his lovely shirt that had been thrown messily into the corner like some dirty rag. “Dammit, it’s gonna be all creased now.”

Keith approached him and pulled the shirt from Lance’s fingers before he realised what was happening and threw it behind his back.

“I was holding that.” Lance stared down at Keith who was trying to square up against him again like earlier. “Something to say?”

“You’ll find I’m a lot of things when I’ve got my dick in something.” Keith's hand reached up and stroked across Lance’s chin using his nail to add a sharp bite to the touch. 

“Hmm. Good to know.” Lance purred back mockingly oversexy as Keith took a step back and made his way over to the door of the bedroom.

“Maybe I’ll call you again sometime, Lance.” Keith smirked over his shoulder as he reached for the door. “Enjoy the party.”

Lance was about to go and grab his shirt once more before Keith turned back and winked at him.

“I’d get out of here quick y’know. Before someone realises what we did.”

Lance’s eyes widened in fear as he quickly scooped up his shirt and sprinted after Keith, effectively abandoning the room. 


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk is most definitely the disappointed mother who questions everyone's decisions and also makes his own opinions always known. Anyone who disagrees with me can come meet outside at my house where I will happily deck each and every one of you.

“You slept together?!” Hunk almost screamed in the canteen at Lunch. It was the day after the party and Hunk and Lance were sat in the canteen chowing down on their food, which they had thankfully remembered today, waiting for the rest of their friends.

Lance hissed as he gently punched his friend in the shoulder. “Say it again, Hunk, I’m getting word in that the president didn’t catch that last bit.”

It’s not like anyone around had turned and heard but still, Lance was feeling embarrassed enough and even admitting what he did to Hunk was taking years off of his life. But he couldn’t just keep this to himself, he had to tell his best friend! He slept with Keith for gods’ sake!

“Wait- When?” Hunk frowned, looking down at his fingers as if working out a serious engineers math problem. “We went home together last night and I didn't hear anything.”

“Well,” Lance gulped. “That’s because we didn’t do it at our place.” 

A beat of silence.

“His place?” Hunk frowned. “How? You never left the house last night and I swear I didn’t see you leave the party either, the only time I wasn’t with you was when you and Keith were thrown upstairs by Shi-”

Lance looked down at his lap in embarrassment, he didn’t want to see the realisation dawn on his best friend’s face, followed by the absolute look of disappointment and frankly freaked out.

“You-” Hunk gulped, his face drooping and cheeks flaring up red. “You nasties! You did it at the party! When you were put in that room together?!”

“Hunk!” Lance whined. “Stop yelling! It’s embarrassing enough as it is!”

“Oh my god.” Hunk was staring around as if at any moment Ashton Kutcher was gonna jump out and that this whole story was just a prank that Lance had made up to give Hunk a condition. “The guys all said that you guys were in there for too long, since you weren’t actually locked in, but I just said ‘oh no, guys, they must just actually be talking about the past and their break up and-’ oh my god!”

“It’s not that big a deal!” Lance grabbed at his textbook and gently smacked it against his head. “It was just one time, it’s not like it’s gonna be a regular thing. Just two exes- who know what the other likes- having a bit of a laugh. That’s all!”

“I don’t even slightly believe you. What if you do it again? You two aren’t going to start dating again-”

“Oh jesus, Hunk, no of course not!” Lance held his arms up, at least that was something he could promise with no worries about being called a liar. “No way! Keith and I would never work as a couple, proof of which was the first time, it was just a silly bit of fun while we were both mildly intoxicated.”

Lance was right. It was just two drunk guys getting each other off at the end of the day, sure it had been a long time since Lance had done that… Well, to be completely honest he hadn’t gone as far as sex with someone since… Well younger Keith, but that didn’t have any meaning.

They were just drunk. Just drunk.

Neither of them wanted it to happen again- Well… Maybe Lance could stand for it happening again, he hadn’t expected being on the receiving end of sex to be as good as it was and Keith seemed pretty skilled in that area so if it meant getting an orgasm that wasn’t pulled from his own wrist then he could probably ignore his hatred for Keith enough to do it. Just one more time when he was drunk- or… Well he’d have to sober once, just to make sure that the good feelings weren’t just brought on by too much vodka and tequila in his stomach, or whatever the hell it was that he drank last night.

But never more than twice! Just twice! … Or maybe three so they could try it one more time in public again just so Lance could be sure if being out and about was a kink he had or not.

So that’s it three times. Once drunk, once sober, and once… in a cornfield or something… His level of drunk on the third time can be a surprise for them both.

God, what was Lance thinking, Keith had made it pretty clear that nothing was gonna come from last night and as fun as it was, that was probably for the best. Saves them a lot of drama and problems down the line. 

“Fine. You know what-” Hunk groaned. “I’ve gotta go to lecture now, so let’s stop talking about it. Are you meeting me after class?”

“Nah.” Lance shrugged. “I’m gonna go to the Library and work on my assignment, don’t know how long I’ll be.”

Hunk nodded. “Alright buddy.” 

They took a few steps and Hunk immediately let out a disgruntled groan. 

“You have a limp!” Hunk cried out. “I’m not 12, I know what that means.”

“It means I’m an old man with back pain, get your head outta the gutter!” Lance reprimanded but Hunk was right, Lance had definitely woke with some extra tension in his bones and they were not caused by age. 

Lance still did the polite thing of walking Hunk to his class, like the old-fashioned love puppy he was, before heading back the way the pair had came and towards the Library. He left the main campus building and headed across the large green field to the Library building and headed inside and straight upstairs.

After finding the perfect spot, Lance perched down into his seat and pulled his laptop out of his bag to rest on the table. Lance didn’t often work in the library which was kind of a shame really. The library was massive, probably even larger than Lance’s four bedroom family home back down south. However, and unlike his house, the library was almost eerily empty and quiet. Lance rarely saw anyone around here and sitting on the top floor was a great spot to get away from the nosey librarian who would occasionally walk around and look at people’s work over their shoulders.

So, he immediately got to work, pulling out his resources and using -what was actually Hunk’s laptop- to get a start on his first assignment. It wasn’t too bad a assignment. 1000 words on the life cycle of a black hole, and it was an article written for an audience of those who knew nothing about astronomy which was Lance’s favourite.

Lance had all the information in his brain, it was just being concise and scientific that was his downfall a fair amount of the time. Plus, he wasn’t the best speller, even spell check couldn’t work out what Lance was trying to write half the time, he can’t be blamed for that, in fact he should be given extra credit since English wasn’t even his first language and it was difficult to remember the different spellings on occasion.

With a faint smile, thankful for a fairly easy start to his second year, Lance got to work and began getting his thoughts down onto the page. Writing notes and points to expand upon later, just wanting to get a format down first. 

It was easier for Lance that way, he had a touch of problems with staying focused, so just getting down all his ideas first would save him the trouble of forgetting anything he wanted to put in later.

An hour passed and Lance already had a good base, a nice short 50 word introduction and was already on his way through his first paragraph, tweaking it with references and witty remarks that made the article more “beginner friendly” since there were extra marks for that. He hadn’t even noticed when two bags slammed down opposite him on the table.

He looked up at the loud bang and immediately caught eyes with none other than Shiro Kogane, a third year astrology student and, as of recently, Allura’s boy toy who she seemed to be liking a lot more than her other boy toys that Lance had ever met. Okay, he’s only met two, Lotor was an ass, immediately vetoed, and he couldn’t bring himself to like Nyma after that time she’d flirted with him behind Allura’s back, it was even worse that he still had to see Nyma on a somewhat regular basis since they worked for same coffee shop. Still, Shiro seemed nice. So far anyway.

“Hey Lance.” Shiro smiled kindly, like Lance was expecting anything different. “Working hard, I see.”

Lance nodded, smiling up at his hot senior, so he was easily able to see the aesthetic side of Shiro, sue him! Lance was a simple man who enjoyed simple pleasures! Like slightly older men with square jaws and bulked bodies. 

What Lance hadn’t noticed for the first few seconds was Keith stood beside him, looking like he was about two seconds from tucking tail and sprinting away from this conversation without a single word.

Lance took a moment to really analyse Keith, compared to yesterday when he ran in to tutor, Keith looked considerably better today. His clothes a lot more casual, less ragged. He was dressed in a short sleeved red button up with black skinny jeans, with his hair pulled back in a tidy ponytail to keep his gross rat’s tail hair out of his eyes.

“Keith.” Lance acknowledged. “Combed your hair today then?”

Keith rolled his eyes but he did seem to relax slightly and sat down, not as reluctantly as would be expected, beside Shiro as both began pulling books and their own laptops from their bags.

Lance watched the pair set up, spreading their books across the table almost in sync with one another, it was kind of surprising how alike they were. Both held the same concentrated look as they held one book in their hands and flicked through for the specific page they needed before pressing that book down on the table and flicking through the next.

Although Keith looked kind of cute when he concentrated, his tongue poking to the side of his mouth and his eyebrows furrowed as if frustrated.

“What are you working on?” Shiro suddenly asked as he waited for his computed to turn on.

“An assignment I got set from my course.” Lance shrugged, dragging his thoughts away from Keith as quickly as possible. “Lifecycle of a black hole.”

“Oh really?” Shiro turned to Keith with a smirk. “Keith just got set that same assignment. Maybe you guys can help each other out. Share ideas and what not.”

“I’ve nearly finished it.” Keith muttered quickly before Lance could even respond, not looking up from his computer as it turned on and he logged on. “I don’t need ideas.”

“Well… You can always share your ideas with Lance, see if he can deepen them for you, help you get some extra marks.” Shiro blew a breath out as if exasperated, Lance got it, Shiro seemed pretty desperate that he and Keith got along but it was kinda hard to do that when they… y’know… hated each other.

“I don't need extra marks.” Keith rolled his eyes.

Lance rolled his eyes in return before stepping in. He made a silent promise to himself that he would try and be civil with Keith, just to make things easier for Allura and Shiro so they didn’t feel uncomfortable being a couple around them. All Lance had to do was be polite and try not to start an argument, that shouldn’t be too difficult.

“It’s fine,” Lance smiled kindly towards Shiro before staring at Keith who was clearly avoiding looking back. “I’m pretty well into mine now as well, and I’m happy with my ideas, I just have to expand my points, don’t need a study buddy for that, no matter how cute they may be.”

Keith’s face snapped up and he glared hard at Lance.

“Just kidding.” Lance held his hands up in surrender,  _ what did you just tell yourself, Lance? No provoking fights! _ “But seriously, it’s fine. What are you working on Shiro?”

“I’m writing an article about the future of the Milky Way galaxy and what affect that will have on the Earth.” Shiro shrugged. “We got set it for over the summer but it’s still not due in for another month, 5000 words and unfortunately “I got no idea what the future holds, fam” does not come within the word count limit.”

Lance let out a surprised bark of laughter, he didn’t know that Shiro actually had a personality let alone a sense of humour. Hmm… Maybe Allura did like him for more than just his looks. That thought made Lance feel kind of guilty as well, since he had known about Shiro’s existence since he was like 16. Keith had spent hours talking about his adoptive big brother when the pair were in high school so to basically know next to nothing now about Shiro made him feel kinda bad.

“Well knowing you, and this university has insured since I first started that I do, you’ll pull it off.” Lance smiled. “And even if you don’t, you can always do extra credit somewhere else.”

“True.” Shiro smiled. “A very positive way of looking at it, thanks Lance.”

“Kiss ass.” Keith grumbled under his breath but Lance caught it and glared at him for a few seconds before returning back down to his work and continuing to type up. The trio all got down into the work and for the next forty minutes they barely spoke a word to each other, Lance occasionally asked Shiro for the correct spelling of certain words when spell check wasn’t helping and Keith occasionally nudged Shiro and pointed down at his screen, to which Shiro would look for a second then nod with a wide smile on his face.

But, at some point when Lance was thoroughly in the zone, Shiro’s phone buzzed on the table and he picked it up to read the oncoming text.

“It’s Allura. She says she’s been coaxed into helping one of her lectures grade papers because she was too nice to say no. She’s asked me to come save her with some sort of emergency, whatever that means…”

“Family emergency will work.” Lance shrugged. “Introduce yourself as the boyfriend and the lecturer will have to believe you.”

“Since this lecturer is Coran, basically Allura’s uncle, I don’t think that one will work.” Shiro shrugged. “But thanks, Lance, I’ll think of something on the way. But I’m gonna have to leave the pair of you to yourselves.”

Keith went to pack up his stuff but Shiro placed a hand down on his shoulder. “Keith, get your work finished. I’ll meet you later at the bar.”

Immediately Keith groaned but didn’t argue, just got straight back to his work, ignoring Lance obviously.

“Oh and before I go, Lance can I grab your number?” Shiro pushed his phone across the table to Lance. “Since we’re gonna be hanging around each other a lot it might be nice for the pair of us to be able to ring each other if need be, plus you’re totally welcome to text me if you ever need any help with your assignments or anything. I do it for Keith so I’d happily do it for you.”

Lance shot a smug grin at Keith. “Oh! So golden child does get help and doesn’t do it all for himself. Good to know. And sure, here.”

Lance quickly typed in his phone number and saved himself under “the blue wonder” before handing Shiro’s phone back, who smiled when he saw the nickname.

“Great. See you around, Lance. Keith.”

“Laters, sweetcakes.” Lance clipped back with a sweet wave and a blown kiss from his hand. 

So Shiro left and the two probably least civil pair on the entirety of campus were left alone, for awhile, it was fine. Lance continued on with his work and even worked up the courage to ask Keith a question.

“How do you spell definitely?” Lance frowned as he whispered aloud.

He watched as Keith looked up at him with a matching frown. “Definitely?”

“Yeah. I’ve wrote it and my computer says it’s spelt right but it doesn’t look right.”

“How have you spelt it?” Keith mumbled.

“D-E-F-I-A-N-T-L-Y.”

“That’s defiantly. Y’know, to be defiant. The wrong word.” Keith explained. “Definitely is D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.”

“Oh.” Lance blushed. He never would have asked if he knew he’d made a mistake as stupid as that. “Well that explains why it looks wrong.”

“Why are you even using that word? You’re not supposed to be using definitive words like that in your essays. They take off marks for that kind of thing.”

“What?” Lance gawped at him.

“Yeah.” Keith shrugged, his facial expression neutral which Lance should be thankful. If Keith looked like he was laughing at him, Lance might have died from mortification. “You shouldn’t make bold statement like definitely, or do, or do not, you should use “should” and things like that since the majority of this assignment is based of hypothetical and theoretical research.” 

“Wow.” Lance eyes widened for a second in surprise as he leaned in closer to Keith’s direction. “Not to be definitive but you are definitely not just a pretty face.”

“If that’s a pick up line, it’s terrible, and I will throw my book at your face if you try it again.” Keith looked back down to his laptop and continued with his work without another glance.

And there it was. The spark. The challenge. Keith was literally laying down the theoretical gauntlet at Lance’s feet.

He tried so hard to ignore it, and for another twenty minutes the pair actually got on smoothly, even if they didn’t speak to each other, but Lance could feel his motivation slipping and his attention dropping with each passing second, plus, he had a real nag to make Keith explode so there was also that.

Keeping the smug look from his face, Lance began to idly stretch his leg out under the table until he felt his calf brush up against Keith’s who physically recoiled and pulled his leg away. Hiding the smile was more difficult as Lance tried again, pushing his leg out further, thank god for his unnaturally long legs in ratio with his torso or else he wouldn’t be doing this right now.

Again Keith recoiled and moved back once more, but this time out of Lance’s reach, so Lance tried for a more irritating method and began to drum his fingers on the table without rhythm, humming a vague song that he couldn’t currently place the name off, getting louder and louder as he watched Keith’s eye twitch in irritation, visually getting more and more pent up as Lance continued to hum.

Eventually, Keith snapped, and threw out his foot under the table so he clocked painfully against Lance’s shin.

“Will you stop? I’m trying to concentrate here!”

“What are you doing?”

“My assignment!” Keith hissed back. “Obviously.”

“Hmm. Sounds like you’re doing something you shouldn’t be.” Lance snarked back, wiggling his fingers in a tutty “no” form as Keith shot holes with his eyes into Lance’s face.

“How? How Lance?” Keith groaned in exasperation. “Just let me finish my assignment.”

“You wanna sit on my lap and do it?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows as he shot finger guns in Keith’s directions. “Lancey Lance can help you out?”

“I’d rather eat my laptop and shit out an F grade paper.” Keith growled. “Now shut up! Or I will punch you in the face, McClain!”

Lance humphed, not giving up completely but he’d pull back for a minute, looking down at his own laptop as Keith got back to typing. Lance stared at his screen for a few minutes, fixing a grammar mistake here and a spelling mistake there but he was fully out of the zone now, he’d have to take the laptop home, Keith was too big a distraction.

“You know, that mullet is such a handy thing to have.” Lance smirked. “A perfect length if I do say so myself and I do.”

“Lance sto-”

“I’d love to put a pretty red bow in it, mark you as a present. Would you like that babe?”

“Lance, I’m going to kick your ass.” Keith snapped, slamming his laptop shut. “I’ve had enough of you and your stupid face.”

“A face you’d love to sit on, I’m sure.”

“Can you just shut your mouth already?”

“Ohh.” Lance winked. “You’d like that wouldn’t you, sexy? You wanna boss me around a little more? Makes me feel a little something something in my big boy boxers”

“That’s it!” Keith snarled and immediately jumped around the table and pulled Lance from his chair, tackling the boy to the ground. Lance couldn’t fight back with Keith’s rough hands as he was too busy in fits of laughter, trying his best to catch Keith who was yanking and pulling at his clothes with vigor.

“Not in public, Keith! What if someone sees?” Lance cooed in the most overly sexual voice he could do but suddenly he was twisted onto his back with Keith climbing on top of his lap and aiming punches down on Lance’s chest, the punches weren’t enough to seriously hurt which was credit for Keith because Lance was being a shit but he was still holding back his throws.

“I’m going to end y-”

“What the hell is going on here?!” A voice suddenly shouted from behind them, immediately the boys stopped and Keith practically threw himself to his feet and away from Lance’s still chuckling form.

Lance looked up and came face to face with the head librarian who looked about a stone’s throw away from chucking Lance and Keith out the highest window. The Head librarian was worse than any of the other librarians who worked here, she looked in her late 50s, rod thin and stood like she had a stick halfway up her ass, her face was scrunched up like a prune and just everything about her said “old bitch.” Not that Lance liked to make judgements early on but she was glaring at him like he’d thrown up on her shoes or something.

“Mrs P.” Keith gulped. “I’m sorry, we were just-”

“Mister Kogane. When Shiro asked me to revoke your ban on this library, I almost didn’t listen but I trusted the word of your brother even though I didn’t believe you were going to follow the rules.” She snapped in Keith’s direction.

“But I-”

“No excuses. I’m here by reestablishing your ban until further notice.”

“Woah! Mrs P!” Lance called as he jumped to his feet, he hadn’t even know the librarians name he was just following Keith’s example. “It was my fault, I was being an ass. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Save it!” The women yelled, holding up a boney finger. “I’ve heard of you McClain, no amount of time in the Library is going to support your grades this coming year.”

“Woah!” Lance held his hands up in surrender. “That’s a bit harsh! We were just fooling around.”

“Well fool around elsewhere!” She snapped. “You’re disturbing other students. Get out of my library. Now!”

Lance sighed and quickly followed suit of Keith who was already packing his things away and both began heading towards the exit, Lance took notice of the fact that there were literally no other students about anywhere.

The pair headed down the stairs and out the library before the librarian could yell at them again, Lance pretty much just followed Keith until the pair reached the grass where they walked toe to toe.

“I can’t believe you got us kicked out.” Keith growled in frustration, as he reached around and zipped up his backpack since he probably didn’t have time while they were getting kicked out. 

“Me?” Lance gasped dramatically, it was totally his fault. “It was totally  _ your  _ fault.”

“How’d you come to that conclusion, Einstein?”

“Because pretty much everything is your fault.” Lance shrugged, narrowly missing the punch that Keith immediately threw at him.

“Sure it is.” Keith snapped back before falling into silence other than the stomp of his shoes in the grass. 

Lance gulped, looking down at his feet. “I’m kinda sorry though. She seemed really mad.”

“Whatever.” Keith didn’t even look up at him. “Shiro will sort it out.”

Lance and Keith walked side by side across the campus, Lance didn’t know what he was doing. He should probably leave, find an excuse to ditch Keith because the alternative was actually talking to him and they weren’t really there yet in the “recover the old friendship” stage. Both of them were feeling the tension rising and both thinking of a way to escape the other.

“Okay, Lance. Since you did get me kicked out when I was supposed to be studying, I’m gonna have to go home and-”

“Wanna come over to mine for a quickie?” Lance suddenly burst out. “... Hunk’s not home.”

Lance gasped, where had that come from? He hadn’t been thinking about sex with Keith- or well, he had- just not future sex with Keith. Why doesn’t he think before he speaks? He was about to take back what he said, just say he was joking or something, but to his surprise Keith stopped and turned to him, his previous frown morphing into an evil smirk.

“You’re bottoming.”

“S-Sure.” Lance gulped even though Keith wasn’t asking him.

“Alright. Let’s go then. Lead the way, sharpshooter.” Keith snorted.

Lance recognised the familiar nickname from when they were younger and a little bit of him warmed when Keith used it, but he couldn’t give up the opportunity to tease Keith while the chance was there.

“Aren’t you technically the sharpshooter now?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows flirtily.

“Do you want me to come back to yours or are you just gonna keep making bad jokes, Lance?”

Lance gulped and jumped forward, quickening his pace into the direction of his apartment. “Waiting on you, Samurai.”


	6. Chapter Six

“ _ F-fu-fuck _ !  _ Keith!” _ Lance called out, trying to muffle his voice by shoving his face down into his pillow to mask the loud moans that continued to escape from his lips. “ _ Don’t stop!” _

Keith reached forward from where he was pounding into Lance from behind and pulled Lance up from the pillow by his hair. Lance winced at the shock at first but it was immediately followed by a louder groan in pleasure as he curled his back into the touch until he was upright again with Keith’s chest pressed tight against Lance’s back, still pounding at him both hard and fast. 

“What do you want, Lance?” Keith grunted low into Lance’s ear.

“Can you t-touch me?” Lance whimpered unsure as he curled an arm backwards over his head to wrap into Keith’s hair for support.

“Beg for it.”

“W-What?” Lance gasped again as Keith angled himself just right to deliver multiple prods into Lance’s sweet spot.

“Beg, slut.”

“ _ Keith _ .”

“Beg or you won’t get what you want.” 

“ _ P-Please! Please touch me!”  _ Lance gulped as Keith continued to aim exactly where Lance wanted it. _ “I want it so bad, Keith. Oh fuck _ !”

“Good boy.” Keith whispered before removing his fingers from his hair and running them down Lance’s chest and grabbing his cock in hand, his other hand holding Lance’s waist and keeping him tightly pressed into him as he timed his pounds to be in sync with the hand sliding down Lance’s extremely slicked cock. 

Lance’s gratitude was instant and he began to push himself down onto Keith’s thick cock continuing to slide in and out of him, the loud smack of skin against skin was music to Lance’s ears and his moans grow louder and more high pitched.

“You like that?” Keith grunted again, the only verbal proof that Keith was actually enjoying this almost as much as Lance was. 

“ _ Oh fuck! Yes! I love it. _ ” Lance called back almost immediately. 

“Fuck, Lance.” 

At that point, Lance knew that his neighbours could probably hear his heavy moans but he didn't care. As Keith began to pound him harder, chasing after their finish, Lance could feel the pressure below his abdomen increasing at an alarming rate. Lance was almost tempted to try and think of things to turn him off just so he could make this last as long as possible.

Just as he considered that thought further, Keith removed the hand from his waist and curved it up his body until his hand held around Lance’s throat, still pulling him backwards against Keith’s front. The pressure wasn’t enough to hurt, or even cut off any of Lance’s breathing really, but it was enough to push Lance further towards the edge until he was a crying, shaking mess. 

“ _ Y-yes! Oh god! Yes! Keith, just like that. Oh fuck. I can’t. I’m g- I’m gonna- _ ” 

Before Lance could speak another word, he felt the coil in his stomach snap and suddenly he was coming all over Keith’s hand who continued to pump him with the same quick speed. Lance was aware of his volume but he was unable to stop as he heard himself calling Keith’s name like a whore trying to make rent. 

Lance immediately fell forward back onto his front, his face buried once more into the pillow faintly aware as Keith started to pick up even more speed, choosing now to do sharp, shallow thrusts rather than the long, deep thrusts from before. A minute or so passed, Lance shaking from the oversensitivity before Keith suddenly pulled back and thrusted in as hard as he could, pausing as he himself shook in pleasure. Lance felt the familiar sensation of warmth spread inside him as Keith let out a long groan in pleasure.

A second later, Keith too fell forward until he was laying spread out across Lance’s back, their sweat making them slide against each other with each sharp intake of breath. They stayed there for just a minute, both caught in the fall of their highs, before Keith suddenly pulled out sharply causing Lance to wince at the loss.

Keith was still for a second before letting out a quiet evil chuckle from behind. He felt rough hards grab at his buttocks and spread them apart lewdly. “You really need to buy some condoms. You’re a mess, Lance.”

“Whatever.”

Lance had barely returned to reality before Keith was stepping off of Lance’s bed and walking around the room looking for different articles of discarded clothing. Lance twisted in his bed to watch as best as he could but Keith stepped out of his view for a second as he spotted his red boxers and quickly pulled them up his legs before looking for the rest of his clothes.

Lance turned over onto his back and pulled himself up into the seated position, wincing slightly at the pain in his lower back and ass. Keith was a lot rougher than usual today, not that Lance minded, but he knew that the next day was going to be hell whenever he sat down, or bent over, or moved in any sort of way for that matter.

“Off already?” Lance whispered, trying his best to sound nonchalant but in fact coming off the complete opposite. Sounding needy and clingy. If Keith asked, Lance decided, he’d just blame it on the post-orgasm bliss. 

“Yeah.” Keith mumbled simply, grabbing his trousers that had been thrown to one corner of the room and pulling them up his thick legs without even a look in Lance’s direction.

“Y’know… You could stay. I don’t know about you but I’m totally up for another round… Maybe this time I could rock your world.” Lance flirted idly from the bed, pleased when Keith turned to look at him at last. “I’ve never ridden a Texan before.”

Lance knew he probably couldn’t handle another round at that pace and vigour but he’d be willing to try if it meant Keith didn’t have to go so soon. Immediately, Lance mentally scolded himself for that last thought, he remembered what Keith said at the party last week when they first slept together again and he wasn’t about to ruin this no-strings no-drama arrangement just because of his own neediness.

Keith almost seemed to give Lance a once over before breaking out into a smirk. “Tempting but another time perhaps. I’ve got a date in an hour and I’ve already stayed longer than I planned to.”

“O-oh?” Lance gulped, unable to hide the wince in his tone. “A date? This late? Look at you, mullet head. Anyone I know?”

Keith raised an eyebrow at him but answers him anyway. “No? It’s just some guy I met at a bar a couple of weeks ago, put his number in my phone so I thought why not?”

“Fair enough.”

“You have a problem with it?”

“I-” What could Lance say now that wouldn’t make him sound like a complete idiot. “Not overly. I just thought, even though this is casual, that it was kinda like an us thing. Monogamy. Never mind it was stupid.”

“We’re not dating, Lance.”

“I-” Lance gasped in shock. “I know!”

“Whatever.”

Lance looked down at his lap, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious about his very naked post-sex looking body that he was originally leaving bare. He casually leant forward to grab his blanket and pulled it up over his legs and up to his stomach before posing the realest smile he could muster. “Well good luck I suppose. Have fun.”

“Bye Lance.” Keith mumbled, choosing now to just grab his clothes from the floor and exit the room to put them on elsewhere. A minute or two later, Lance heard the front door slam shut leaving him completely alone. A shiver ran down Lance’s back and he was once again reminded of his bare, naked body exposed to the cold air of his bedroom.

Lance sighed, choosing not to wallow in his own self-pity, and slowly pushed his way onto his feet. He tried to ignore the aching sensation which was slowly getting more painful as he scurried out of his bedroom. It was Lance’s own fault, he’d been the one to rush through the prep stage, he had no idea what came over him when Keith arrived earlier but it was like every light touch sent electricity down his spine.

Lance couldn’t be prepped any longer than he was or else he would’ve cum from Keith’s fingers alone, and that was something he didn’t want Keith’s ego holding over him.

The biggest moron on this planet passed through the hallway and to the bathroom where hopefully the warm embrace from a heated shower could provide the post-sex cuddles that Lance was currently craving.

Keith and Lance had been doing this little dance for just under a fortnight now - since the party - it's strange how for a whole year and a half the two of them avoided each other like the plague. Never speaking, barely giving eye contact, just pretending like they were strangers. Yet not, it’s the exact opposite. Lance has seen Keith more times in the last two weeks than all the times he had from the day the pair of them broke up in highschool to the first day back at college the other week.

It was all thanks to the dynamic new power couple on campus, Shiro and Allura, that’s the only explanation. Since the pair of them were now trying to bond their small groups together, Lance was forced to see Keith numerous times a day. But it was strange though, even with the secret relationship between Lance and Keith, their everyday relationship was still an absolute mess. They couldn’t go five minutes without arguing or disagreeing about something. One always pissed off the other until they were full flat shouting at one another in the middle of the dinner hall. 

Thinking it might help the relationship, Lance had tried to make up for that incident in the library since he actually did stop and decide that it was probably partially his fault as well as Keith’s. A couple days after, he even approached the librarian to ask for forgiveness on Keith’s behalf  _ and _ he’d done it! The McClain’s winning smile had proved victorious again as he was able to convince the librarian to revoke Keith’s ban on the condition that the two of them were never in the library at the same time  _ and  _ that Lance dedicated some time to help recategorise some text books on the top floor. 

Which was kind of a pain in the ass, Lance was kind of busy with other things, but it was totally worth it to see the surprised look on Keith’s face when Lance had told him. Keith may deny it but that had totally earnt Lance a naughty reward.

Lance can now officially check ‘receiving a hand job in the college toilets’ off his bucket list.

Fixing the library problem might have worked short-term but the pair still argued like cat and dog, it was like outside of the bedroom they were two different people who couldn’t stand being around each other, who pissed each other off just by looking. Maybe the sex wasn’t such a great idea because they didn’t really have any excuse to fix what was wrong. The sex was great and that’s all they really cared about.

What's worse is that Lance considers himself a weak man, so whenever he sensed an opportunity arise he was quick to invite Keith back to his flat whenever he knew Hunk was in class or at work and the young pair would bump it like bunnies.

It’s fun. A lot of fun. Lance had almost got his virginity back in the time between his last occassion having sex and now messing around with Keith. But being with Keith was still warm gush of wind, like coming home almost but not as soppy and invested, Keith knew what Lance liked and he more often that not knew how to pull the best orgasms out of Lance using that knowledge. Lance only hoped he was doing the same for Keith, but he hadn’t been complaining so far so Lance would take it as a win. 

Back in reality, Lance quickly turned on the shower and waited the agonising extra seconds it took for the water to heat up before stepping in slowly, allowing the water to clean him of the last sinful hour of his life. 

Unfortunately, after the last two weeks, Lance had reached an impasse, a terrible thought that he couldn’t push from his head no matter how much he wanted to.

Lance was trying to accept the fact that Keith never stays. 

Usually, not even a minute after they both finish Keith would just pack straight up and leave with barely another word. 

One way to think of it, or what Lance was trying to convince himself, was that he should be more worried if it didn’t hurt. He wanted to believe that he  _ should _ have some positive feelings towards Keith outside of the amazing sex so the pain in his chest every time Keith left is just a result of that, right?

Okay, so maybe Lance didn’t truly believe that at all. 

But still. What could he do about it? Again, Keith has made his position quite clear and that position didn’t leave much room for Lance. So why couldn’t he just accept it? 

Keith even had a date and he hadn't hidden it. He was open about it. Keith said he'd met the guy two weeks ago, but was it before or after the party?

Had Keith agreed to the date before he'd slept with Lance and was just too chicken to cancel? Or… Was Lance not enough? Was he needing to go out and find more tail because Lance wasn't enough to satiate him?

Lance grimaced.

Thinking like this wasn't helping at all. In fact it was just making it worse… Sure, it would be nice if Keith stayed for like, what, 30 minutes of cuddling. That's more than enough for Lance, he'd never moan again.

Well, he'd be moaning a lot but not in the negative way.

_ Enough _ . When Kogane is gone, he is gone in body and mind.

Therefore,  _ stop thinking about him, Lance _ !

Lance washed his hair, thinking about Keith, shaved his legs, thinking about Keith, and cleaned the cum out of his arse while he definitely thought about Keith since he'd been the one to put it there in the first place. Thankfully though, there is something so devastingly unsexy about cleaning your fuck buddies jizz out of your overused and abused asshole that really puts a few things into perspective. 

Keith was right. He should invest in some condoms.

Once clean, Lance turned off the shower and dried himself off before wrapping himself in one of his favourite robes. Lance was a luxury hoe, who owned 4 robes, but his favourite was his thin, blue silk one that draped down mid-thigh. He truly became his inner power bottom wearing this robe. 

After applying his face creams, lotions and potions he headed into the living room and sat in front of the TV watching an old episode of Jerry Springer to remind himself that he wasn't the only melodramatic old soul on this planet.

A little while later, Lance listened as the front door quietly opened again followed by the scuffling of large feet into the threshold. 

Lance thought to fake being asleep but he knew there was no getting things past Hunk so he just accepted his fate as he heard his best friend enter the living room and place his bag down on their dining table in the corner before walking over to join Lance on the couch.

“Hey. You're still up?” Hunk asked, sitting beside Lance on the couch. “I figured you would've gone to bed by now since you've got class first thing tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” Lance mumbled back, leaning himself onto Hunk almost immediately. “Just thinking.”

“Wanna talk about it?” 

“Umm…” Lance gulped, nuzzling into Hunks body further. “I suppose so.”

“Am I right in assuming it's about Keith?”

Lance froze up almost immediately which Hunk clearly noticed as he released a slow pitiful sigh before curling one arm around Lance's shoulder. 

“it's not hard to tell that something is going on between the two of you. You've been acting different since the party. Not bad different, don't get me wrong, but still.”

“Yeah…” Lance gulped. “We've kinda been sleeping together… Regularly.”

“You're back together?”

“Well… No, we just-” 

“This is not a good idea, Lance.” Hunk immediately interrupted. “Not good at all. I mean when you said you'd slept together at the party I thought it would be fine, closure for the two of you, but this-”

“It's fine. We both know it's just sex. No feelings involved.”

“No feelings?” Hunk snorted in disagreement. “Lance, I was there when you guys broke up. I know how cut up you were about it. For months. You shouldn't just run back to it like nothing ever happened.”

“I haven't.” Lance tried his best to support himself but the whimper in his tone probably gave it away. “We've decided to forget the past. We're good together in bed, we know what we like, what we don't, it's simple.”

“It's not any different?”

“Well yeah of course it's different. We don't… love each other this time. There's no romance or foreplay.”

“Anything else?”

“Umm… Well… This might be a bit too much information but we’ve kinda switched.”

Lance could almost sense the eyebrow that Hunk raised in response. 

“What do you mean switched?”

“Well when we were dating it was always… me who was giving. Now it's always Keith.”

Hunk hummed as if he was thinking. “Do you think that's significant?”

“I mean not really. From what it sounds like Keith has been with a lot of guys since the break up so he's just found what he likes. It's no biggie, not like I care. It's not like I don't enjoy it. I mean, I’d never been on the bottom before but Keith’s pretty good about it.”

“Yeah, sure Lance but, emotionally, can you deal with it?” Hunk tightened his grip reassuringly around Lance's shoulder. 

“I think so. If not, I soon will.”

Hunk hummed as if he didn’t like Lance’s answer.

“Dude. I’m serious.”

Hunk sighed. “I don't know man, it doesn't sound like a good idea to me. It sounds like you're setting yourself up for the same amount of hurt you experienced when you broke up in high school.”

“Come on, Hunk, we were kids. It was my first relationship. His too. It was new and exciting and… lusty. It's totally different this time. We have more experience. Life and love alike. We broke up for a good reason and we know we drove each other crazy- still do for that matter- It's best we just keep it like this. I know you disagree but it's fine. It probably won't last long anyway.”

“Listen, Lance. I know you don't wanna hear this but I'll be kicking myself if I'm not honest with you. I really, really, don't think you should do this. If you wanna find someone you should look elsewhere than the ghosts of your past… and not a nice ghost at that.”

Lance couldn't stop the snort that escaped through his nose.

Hunk continued. “Keith is like one of those paranormal activity, malevolent, malicious demons who torment the home owners for months before finally killing them off in a violent and terrifying fashion.”

“Keith isn't that bad. You just have a low opinion of him because I only ever moaned about him to you for the entire lead up, duration and end of our relationship.”

“No that’s not why. I thought I knew Keith… I don’t have the highest opinion of him because I still think what he did was pretty shitty during the breakup.” Hunk muttered, his use of a swear word marking his statement as final with no room for further argument. 

“It wasn't his fault. Not really anyway.”

“You'd spend the rest of your life defending him if you could.” Hunk sighed. “Come on, let's talk about something else. I had this horribly rude customer at work today and I have to tell you.”

Lance slowly began to relax again as he listened to the lulling voice of his best friend drone on about his shift at work. Lance enjoyed it, it was a nice escape from the seething questions that had been plaguing his brain all night. It was good to have a bit of peace and quiet for a minute.

Normally when Hunk got home from work, since it was so late, Lance would usually be in bed already but since he was up and clearly in need of some Hunk time. The two stayed up watching Gordon Ramsay on TV with some hot chocolates. Occasionally they’d point and laugh at the TV, both complementing Gordon on his delicious meals and face alike. 

“He’s on my list.” Lance winked back at Hunk during a scene where Gordon was explaining the perfect way to cut and cook a lobster. 

“Mine too.” Hunk hummed dreamily. “... So’s that lobster.”

Not too long after that, the boys cleared up their cups, switched off the lights and headed to their respective rooms. Lance quickly threw on some proper pyjamas, silk again because what was he if not a princess?, and climbed into his bed, the sheets were still a little damp from earlier which caused Lance to curl up a little into a dry spot he found. He mentally noted to wash his sheets tomorrow if he had time. 

Just before he was about to fall asleep, Lance heard the familiar sound of his phone vibrating against the bedside table. He reached over and plucked it up, holding tight as he brought it over his face as to not drop it before unlocking it.

It was a text from Keith. 

Lance felt a wave of apprehension rush over him as he opened the message and let his eyes scroll over the message.

[00:19]  _ Keith: Hey… Are you still up? _

Lance suddenly felt a little hope rise up in his body. Why would Keith be texting him? Did his date not go well? Did he want to talk to Lance about it? 

[00:20]  _ Lance: Yeah, just about. What’s up, mullet man? _

Keith’s response was almost instantaneous.

[00:20]  _ Keith: We need to talk. _

[00:21]  _ Lance: Okay, ominous… What about? _

[00:22]  _ Keith: About earlier… I think we need to make an arrangement to save any sort of confusions. _

Lance frowned deep. An arrangement? What the hell did that mean?

[00:23]  _ Lance: What kind of arrangement? _

[00:24]  _ Keith: Well if you really wanna do this… Whatever we’re doing… We need to have some ground rules.  _

[00:25]  _ Lance: Sounds fair. Like what? _

[00:27]  _ Keith: Well, we stay out of each other’s business. Nobody knows what we’re doing. No feelings. Obvious stuff. _

Lance let out a snort as he felt his own irritation rising. Did they really need to have this conversation? Keith had already made his position clear. No relationship. No strings. No feelings. Lance got that, it might be a little difficult in practice sure, but he was trying and he was pretty sure he could do it soon enough. 

[00:29]  _ Lance: Simple enough. That’s what we’ve doing thus far anyway, isn’t it? _

[00:30]  _ Keith: Well… I’d rather you didn’t ask me about the people I’m dating since it’s none of your business. If you wanna go monogamous that’s fine, but I don’t want to continue if I have to as well. This is supposed to be casual afterall. _

The jab to Lance’s heart was almost instant. He didn’t think he was being particularly nosey, just making a bit of conversation. Was that so bad? Lance hadn’t even thought up a reply when another ping came through.

[00:31]  _ Keith: I know Hunk works on Tuesdays and Thursdays so for the time being, while it’s still fun, I can come over on those two nights and then we just avoid each other the rest of the time. Sound fair? _

[00:32]  _ Lance: Fine. And as soon as the one of us finds someone we want to explore a relationship with then we cut off- no strings- no ill will. Sounds all good to me. Night Keith.” _

Lance stared at his phone for another five minutes, hoping for Keith to at least respond with a good night but it never came. Lance eventually gave in and placed his phone back down on the bedside table before curling himself back into his bed.

He tried to ignore the fact that the ache in his heart was so familiar and if it was anything like last time, he was going to be stuck with it for a while. 


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I completely forgot to update this story because I've been so busy! I'll try and update again in like two days to make up for the delay. Whoops...

A few weeks passed and mid September soon rolled into early November in what felt like a blink of an eye. 

Assignments were in and out like hot cakes and Lance’s results were coming back… Okay. They weren’t the highest in the world but they were definitely workable, if he kept them up he’d definitely pass the year and that was really all that mattered to him.

He’d started getting his ass back to work again, keeping his hours frequent but not frequent enough that he it was hard finding the time getting his college work done. Lance had plenty of time for a lot of things, like his new found arrangement with Keith.

When the arrangement was put in place, Lance was kind of hurt and gutted about it but after a few weeks of trial and testing, it was actually a really good set up. Keith would usually come over for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and give it to Lance till he was a babbling mess, usually too tired to do anything else afterwards but that worked out fine. It was relaxing, definitely a fun escape from the mundane ‘go to lecture, study between lectures, go to work, go to bed’ life he’d be having otherwise.

Plus, Keith would always give it harder on a Thursday as if he was making sure that Lance was still feeling it up until the following Tuesday when he returned.

Trust. As Lance walked across his campus towards the dinner hall at precisely 13:24 on Friday afternoon, he was absolutely definitely completely and entirely feeling it now. Lance was lucky he’d actually managed to crawl his way out of bed this morning the way his hips were locking. He hoped one day, Keith wouldn’t be able to pretty much immobilise Lance just by plain dick power. Lance dreamed of the day he could get up and go like nothing had ever happened but today was not that day, today was for hobbling and occasional hip twinging and an almost burning heat from having his rim stretched from one side of the universe to the other.

Too much information? Try living it!

Lance chuckled to himself as he made his way through the double doors of the food hall and stepped inside, he’d just come out of his first lecture of the day and thankfully had a one hour break until his next one was due to begin and thankfully on Friday, Hunk and Pidge had the same break themselves. Lance scanned his eyes across the room but couldn’t see anyone he knew that is until...

“Lance!” A voice suddenly called from across the canteen.

Lance immediately locked eyes with the direction of the voice and couldn’t help but smile as he caught sight of his friends sat at the other end of the canteen, all waving in his direction.

As Lance was making his way over, he caught sight of someone extra sitting at the table that for a moment he didn’t recognise. And were they-? They were sitting in his seat too! The ultimate seat, the seat right beside Hunk but far enough away from Pidge that Lance wouldn’t be a named victim in a domestic disturbance since that tiny gremlin would often flail their arms out if something annoyed them on their laptop.

The only position that was protected from physical harm from Pidge but just about close enough to Hunk to be acceptable and  _ someone _ else was sitting in it!

Lance was about a second away from feeling betrayed like he’d been replaced when he finally realised who the extra occupant at the table was, and when he did so he immediately took off into a jog to cross the canteen faster and wrap his gangly arms around the newcomer.

“Shay!” Lance squealed in joy. “No one told me you were home!”

“Hello, Lance. It is very good to see you.” Shay giggled back immediately, reaching back to wrap her own arms around Lance’s skinny waist.

Shay, much like Hunk, towered over Lance in height and gave almost as good as bear hugs. Shay reminded Lance of Hunk in a hundred different ways, which is probably why he took a liking to the girl so soon after meeting her, and was absolutely overjoyed when Hunk confessed to him a year and a half ago that the two were “chatting” which was basically seriously dating in Hunk’s language.

So yes, long story short, he loved Shay.

“Hey guys.” Lance weakly greeted the other pair, not even sparing them a look as he cuddled into Shay further.

“Keep your eye on Shay, Hunk.” Pidge snorted. “If you’re not carefully she will drag Lance out from under you when you least expect it.”

Hunk snorted in reply but as Lance looked over Shay’s shoulder he could see the affectionate smile Hunk was shooting in their direction, mostly aimed at the beautiful Shay but Lance would still take it.

“What are you doing here?” Lance squealed, not really wanting to let go so just allowed Shay to just maneuver him to the table and place him down in his usual seat while she herself moved to sit on Hunk’s other side.

“I just got off placement.” She smiled. “Just got home this morning.”

“Wow. So how was it? Where even were you this time?” Lance leant forward so his head rested in his hands, elbows against the table.

“We kind of went all over really.” She smiled, pulling her bag over to in front of her and pulling out a large water bottle with “Rock ‘n’ roll” down the side, which was actually Lance’s Christmas present to her last year.. “We stayed in Arizona for a while then moved down to Texas and then past the border and just dotted around a few countries in South America. Uruguay was absolutely stunning, I’d love to go back there, just maybe not on placement next time.”

Hunk leant over and pressed his head against her shoulder, pouting. “I’ll save some money and we can look into going together next summer if you’re not on placement then.”

The pair had planned to go away the previous summer but unfortunately a last minute placement for Shay meant they had to put a pin in their ideas, Lance felt sorry for the pair. They never really did get time just the two of them since Shay had a roomate at her apartment and obviously Hunk had Lance. 

Maybe Lance could go kip on Pidge’s floor for a couple of nights now that Shay was back. Give the couple some time with each other. Not naughty things. Just be able to sit on the couch, order take-out, talk about their least favourite children’s TV shows. Y’know, everyday couple stuff that they missed out on a lot what with the pairs busy schedules. 

“So does that mean a nice group outing now that Shay is back?” Pidge asked, Lance looked over and now saw that the young girl was obviously hunched over her laptop, typing unknown coding like her life depended on it, barely looking up from her screen.

“Oh yes! We’re going out for a meal tomorrow night.” Hunk smiled, never taking his eyes of Shay for a moment. “The whole group as a way to say both hello and goodbye to Shay.”

“Goodbye? You just got here.” Lance frowned. “Where are you going, Shay?”

“I’m only home for a few days and then I’m back travelling again.” Shay sighed sadly. “I’ve only really come home just to collect some things and make sure my affairs are all in order, like my apartment.”

“So…” Pidge mumbled, not even looking up from their computer. “Group meal, huh? Who counts as the group these days?”

“Well… Obviously us four.” Hunk gulped, suddenly appearing quite shy almost. “Allura, of course, and she’ll be bringing Shiro… Who’ll also be bringing Keith.”

“Oh. That doesn’t sound like a good idea.” Pidge snorted before Lance could even think about voicing his protests, to which he had quite a few. “Can we sit them on a different table?”

Pidge gave a pointed disgusted look at Lance before sneering and turning back to her computer as if she hadn’t just mildly offended Lance. Wait- screw mildly- really offended Lance!

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance gasped in shock.

“It means, you two are embarrassing enough around just us,” Pidge returned to her ‘I’m-not-gonna-even-look-at-you-as-I-talk-because-I-think-it-makes-me-look-cool’ shtick. “in a public place surrounded by others. It’s going to be mortifying.”

Shay dropped her head to the side in confusion. “How so?”

“All Lance and Keith do is argue with each other. Very loudly. They can’t help it, one always sets the other off.” Hunk mumbled disapprovingly. “Sorry, Lance, but it  _ is _ true.”

“It is not true.” Lance rolled his eyes, even Hunk was turning on him, it was going to be a cold day in hell today. “Keith and I are doing so much better than we used to, we argue so much less than we did that first week after meeting.”

“Yeah… There’s a reason for that.” Pidge grumbled, immediately looking back down to their laptop.

“You-” Lance pointed an accusatory finger at Pidge to grab their attention back. “-shouldn’t even know about that.”

“Lance. The whole world knows about it. You are literally the least subtle person in the universe.” Pidge growled. “None of you have truly suffered until you’re laid down in the sun on a field with all your friends, seconds away from falling asleep when suddenly you hear “do you think they’d wake up again if I sucked your dick right now?” like, I literally had to bathe in bleach that same evening.”

“I was just joking!” Lance rolled his eyes, having heard Pidge tell this story before.

For the record, at the time when this happened, with Hunk, Shiro, Allura and he thought Pidge asleep on the grass, with Keith’s hand not so subtly rubbing up and down his thigh. He most certainly hadn’t been joking. 

It was only Pidge, thanks to that unfortunate situation, Hunk and obviously now Shay who knew of Keith and Lance’s little arrangement. Allura had asked a few days back if something was going on between the usually arguing pair but both had adamantly denied it. Allura took the bait, but according to Keith, Shiro had yet to be convinced, and had cornered Keith the day before last and asked him about it.

Keith still hasn’t admitted whether or not he told Shiro the truth and seemed to be avoiding the conversation. In Keith’s language that meant that Shiro had totally figured it out but Keith wasn’t willing to talk about it.

Lance would weasel it out of him at some point.

Shay smiled at Lance kindly, clearly analysing whatever look Lance was currently sporting on his face right now. “So are you dating again, Lance?”

“Oh god no!” Lance laughed, holding his hands up. “Nothing like that. It’s just something casual to fit around college.”

“It’s also a bad idea.” Hunk added. “But I’ve had this conversation with him a couple times now. Like talking to a wall.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re all just jealous.” Lance snorted. “You’re just gutted that Lance McClain is temporarily off the market and being rented out. Don’t you worry, I’ll be back for sale soon enough and I’ll take as many love confessions you can throw at me.”

“I could not think of anything worse.” Pidge snorted. “If I hadn’t just eaten a very expensive canteen lunch, I would puke.”

The group descended into chuckles and the rest of the dinner break went smoothly, eventually the foursome split and headed to their afternoon lectures and seminars before meeting again at the end of the day. Lance asked Pidge very nicely if he could kip on their floor to give Shay and Hunk a night of privacy to which they strongly declined.

Oh well, a man did try and he wasn’t about to ask Allura. He did give Keith a try surprisingly. Not for a sleepover, just for a quick nookie to get Lance out of the flat for a few hours, but Keith’s reply was quick and blunt.

“ _ Not in a million years. Have a good night, McClain. _ ”

Keith seemed kind of funny about Lance coming over to his, Lance had mentioned it a few times they he could make the journey to Keith’s on occasion since he’d never done the “walk of shame” before and was kind of tempted to know what it felt like, but Keith had always very strongly said no and even said that if Lance ever figured out where Keith lived then he would move somewhere else.

Bit harsh, but alright.

So Lance couldn’t really give the couple any privacy. He tried, around dinner time he headed to the library with some books and studied some of his lecture notes, using the library computers to look up stuff he didn’t completely understand. Youtube tutorials were a god send in explaining topics that Lance hadn’t completely grasped in his seminars. 

He stayed till midnight before he started to get tired and headed up, not even pausing to say goodnight, just heading straight into his bedroom and stripping down to sleep.

A little while later he heard the front door open and close signalling Shay’s return back to her own place and Lance sighed in happiness. He hoped that the two had actually got a good amount of time alone to themselves since they did deserve it after being apart for so long, and since they were about to be apart again.

Lance fell asleep to thoughts of love at a long distance, of having to rely on communication to get you through those harder times of missing them so strongly.

Lance wasn’t so good at communication.

He couldn’t do it.

The next day, Hunk was working a half day shift from 8am till 2pm so Lance didn’t even bother getting out of bed until lunch time before he made his way through the house tidying and cleaning, making sure every surface and floor was spick and span. He enjoyed his cleaning days, rocking out to whatever music took his fancy, and today was no different.

Something about today had put a spring in Lance’s step. He had no idea what it was. It was like Lance could feel the very universe looking down at him and promising him a good day today and that was enough to have Lance smiled all the way through the door, all through Hunk getting home and the two cooking and eating lunch together. All through watching a few episodes of their favourite binge tv shows, to Shay coming over in the early evening to get ready, finally to Lance getting ready himself.

By 6 o’clock, Lance was as happy as a cat. 

After showering and putting on his makeup Lance stared at his reflection in his full length mirror with a smile. He inspected every aspect of himself and was happy to note that his stomach wasn’t as bloated as it had been during the summer.  _ Maybe it’s all the sex you’ve been having _ , a random thought floated through his head. 

It was true. Lance still hadn’t made his way back into his workout routine yet but he did have something to replace it. Basically having to hold his own weight up while getting pounded into dust for a couple hours twice a week was probably more of a workout than his actual workout.

Lance continued dressing, pulling boxers and nice skinny jeans up his freshly shaven legs before heading to his closet to find a shirt to wear, but that in itself was challenging. Lance must have been stood there over five minutes before someone approached his bedroom door.

“Lance, it’s Shay, are you ready yet?” A knock sounded at the door followed by the door opening and young beautiful Shay walking in, her hands covering her eyes. “Is it safe to look?”

“If you don’t want to be absolutely floored by impressive man chest then no. If you’re fine with a bit of nip then yeah. I’m wearing pants.” Lance chuckled, sifting through his closet quickly. “I don’t know what to wear on top.”

“But everything you own is so nice.” Shay smiled, dropping her hand and walking over to perch on the corner of Lance’s bed. “Anything will suit you tremendously.”

“That’s very sweet.” Lance chuckled, a little taken aback by the compliment but grateful nonetheless. “I just mean because I’m wearing my jacket and a scarf so I want to wear something that matches but is also fancy enough for the restaurant.”

“What about that light blue button up shirt you wore when we first met?”

“You mean the taster day? When we were 17?” Lance chuckled. “I don’t own that shirt anymore. I’ve filled out a lot in the last two years. It’s all of Hunk’s beautiful home made meals… Plus, y’know, normal growth.”

Shay giggled into her hand. “Ah. Well do you have something similar?”

Lance thought for a moment, creasing his face up as if that would help an idea spring to mind and just like a magic, something did. He turned back to his closet and reached through till he found a navy blue button up shirt with a slightly lighter navy blue polka dots running across it in a zigzag pattern almost.

“What about this?” Lance held it up for Shay’s inspection, who immediately smiled and gave a big thumbs up. “It’ll go with my jacket and scarf too so this is good with me.”

“Alright. I’ll wait with Hunk then, see you in a minute. Remember we have to be there soon.”

“Don’t worry. Just put this on and I’m ready freddy.” Lance winked, immediately pulling the shirt over his head as he always kept the top few buttons undone after washing and drying his button ups.

After a bit of fiddling and button doing, Lance finally looked at himself in the mirror. He wasn’t exactly going to be walking runways with this look but it was comfortable, and formal enough for the restaurant they were going to.

He joined the others in the living room and after a few more minutes, Lance, Hunk and Shay all headed into the hall to put on their shoes and coats.

Lance grabbed his light blue scarf and wrapped it tightly around his neck before tucking it into his zipped up jacket. For once, he was the first one to actually jump out the front door.

“I’ve parked my car down the street. We can grab Pidge on the way.” Shay mumbled, stepping at the door, as she stared down at her phone, tapping a few buttons before looking up. “I just told them we’ll be there in five.”

Hunk walked out next, circling his keys around his fingers and handing Lance his keys who gratefully took them… Since he had actually forgotten to pick them up. Lance would forget his own head if he didn’t have Hunk subconsciously remembering for him.

The trio checked they had all they need before closing the door and heading towards Shay’s car. Shay had a really nice car, it used to be her grandmothers but as the woman got older, stopped working and settled down in a nice little house somewhere in Florida, she decided she didn’t need to drive anymore so gave the car to Shay as a gift when Shay got her license a few years back.

Lance jumped into the back seat without even needing to be told and buckled in as the young couple climbed in the front. Going through the “start car motion.” 

“Did you need me to bring the SAT NAV up?” Hunk asked, plugging Shay’s phone into the USB charger as she buckled herself in and checked her mirrors.

“No thank you.” She smiled. “I’m fairly sure I know how to get to the restaurant from Pidge’s place.”

Hunk nodded as Shay started the car, and just like that they were off. They made their way to Pidge’s place in silence other than the quiet classical music from Shay’s radio until they pulled up in front of the building where Pidge was already stood waiting, cuddling into their jacket to protect themself from the cold.

Lance scooted over to the opposite side of the car so Pidge didn’t have to walk around but immediately regretted it as the first thing they did when they opened the door was insult him.

“Lance. Why do you look like you’re going to a parent-teacher conference?” Pidge snorted as she crawled into the car beside him. “That jacket is all kinds of Mister McClain.”

“At least I don’t look like I can’t give up my emo teenage years.” Lance growled back referring to Pidge’s leather jacket and black ripped skinny jeans. Clearly they didn’t get the message that this was a fancy restaurant… Not that Lance could picture the youngest wearing any thing different so why was he really complaining?

“At least I am a teenager. You won’t be for much longer old man.” Pidge snorted. “Have you been skipping out on your night time routine? I think I see some wrinkles coming through that concealer there.”

“Hunk!” Lance whined. “Pidge is being mean to me!”

“Pidge.” Hunk reprimanded immediately, but his tone was totally exasperated. “Don’t pick on Lance. He’s sensitive. I don’t need him crying and demanding to go home. Lance, don’t rise to their taunts.”

Both teens grumbled and crossed their arms over their chests, staring out of their respective windows and ignoring the other to save from any more argument as the car started up against and the foursome made their way the short twenty minute drive over to the restaurant. 

It didn’t take long for Shay to find a place but she did park a little way away since some roads had free parking, where as the roads closer towards the high street where the restaurant was located you had to pay a few dollars for every hour.

They quickly jumped from the car and darted towards the restaurant to try and keep the cold from piercing their bodies. When they reached the restaurant it didn’t matter though since they had to stand outside due to the fact they were the first to arrive.

“You look very dapper, Hunk.” Pidge suddenly complimented. “Is that a blazer? Very fancy.”

“Shay bought it for me as a gift.” Hunk smiled, immediately beaming with pride as he showcased his very lovely mustard coloured blazer. “It’s thick and warm.”

“I like it.” Pidge snorted before turning to Shay. “I like your dress too, Shay, you two are matching. It’s like you’re couple matching or something.”

“Thank you.” Shay giggled, smoothing down her 50s style yellow and purple dress before cuddling deeper into her coat. “But unlike Hunk’s, it is not thick and warm. I am very cold right now.”

“Yeah we just gotta wait for the others and then we can go in and find a seat.” Hunk explained. “Do you want my jacket until then?” 

Shay giggled and suddenly moved across to Hunk and leaned against his stomach. “Just wrap your arms around me, that should suffice.”

“Gross. I can’t believe I have to deal with 3 disgusting couples tonight.” Pidge grumbled turning away.

“Keith and I are not a couple!”

“I was actually talking about you and your ego.” Pidge turned to him with a triumphant smirk. “But I’m glad even you know that you and Keith are so clearly dating it’s not even funny anymore.”

Lance leaned over and bumped Pidge with his hip before leaning in and whispering into their ear. “We are _ not _ and don’t go around tonight talking as if we are. I don’t want it to be uncomfortable, and I’m not sure if Shiro knows about our arrangement but if he doesn’t then both Keith and I would much rather he didn’t find out.”

“Please. Shiro’s not stupid.” Pidge laughed. “I’m certain he’s known from the second he threw the pair of you in that bedroom that the two of you are too stupid to be able to help yourselves.”

“Okay. Pidge. This is called bullying now, I’m going to have to report you and get you removed from college grounds.”

“Okay, Romeo, just you wait. I can prove all of my, as you say, bullyish remarks in the first hour of this dinner alone.” Pidge bumped Lance’s hip back so hard that Lance almost toppled over from the surprising strength, well he would’ve toppled over if it wasn’t for the hard surface he fell against and the loud  _ oompf _ that followed.

“Fuck sake, Lance.” A familiar growl sounded as Lance’s balance returned. “Can you try and not knock me out? Y’know, since I just got here.”

Lance turned in surprise and immediately smiled as he looked at his favourite fuck buddy of all time who might have been glaring back but oh well. “Keithy boy. What a pleasant surprise.”

Eyes scanning, Lance next caught sight of Allura and Shiro stood slightly behind, smirking at the two as if they had their own dirty little secret. But Lance didn’t care about secretes right now, Lance was positively gobsmacked.

Was it allowed for Allura to be dressed in a tight black pencil skirt and a white three quarter length blouse with a gorgeous purple trench coat over top? Was it legal for Shiro to be wearing a three a gorgeous black shirt and baby pink tie with a gorgeous pink jacket over top?

Lance didn’t think so.

But then… He made a mistake. The mistake of looking at the guy he was still kind of leaning against.

Keith.

Now Keith was a different kind of specimen.

Much like Lance, Keith had gone for the button up shirt approach but maybe Keith had bought it when he was slightly smaller because that shirt was  _ tight!  _ Like “we gotta cut her loose, captain” kinda tight. Squeezing against Keith’s thick biceps and curling into the abs on his chest, leaving not a damn thing for the imagination.

Well not that Lance needed his imagination, he’d seen the real thing. But still, this was something out of Lance’s best wet dreams and maybe it was the smell of garlic bread wafting from the restaurant but Lance could feel himself getting hungrier and hungrier by the second.

“You’re drooling.” Keith suddenly leaned in to Lance’s ear and whispered. “Try not to be so obvious, would you?”

Lance jumped back in surprise, distancing himself from Keith as much as he could by bumping himself into Pidge who let out their own grunt of surprise. That’ll be pay back for pushing him before, gremlin.

“So.” Hunk’s powerful voice called out. “Shall we go sit down and eat or are we all wanting to freeze ourselves to death?”

“Food it is.” Pidge growled, jamming a finger hard into Lance’s hip bone. “Anything to get away from this moron.”

This was only going to go well.

Happy thoughts, Lance, remember, the gods are smiling down at you right now.

It’s going to be a good day.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: This was originally the one shot that I wrote after season two, enjoyed writing it so much that I decided to turn it into a longer fic. I've barely touched this chapter for years so if it's a little different than other chapters I don't mind, I wanted to keep it's authenticity that I originally wrote it with.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

“So how are the placements?” Allura smiled across the table. The group had found their seats in the restaurant and were now crowding around a small table, all chowing down on their meals happily as they made conversation.

“It’s good.” Shay smiled from the head of the table. “I’m really enjoying it, although it is nice to be home for a couple of days.”

“It’s nice to have you home.” Hunk blushed from Lance’s left side, actually ignoring his plate of food to stare affectionately at Shay who blushed bright red at his words. 

“Where are you off to next?” Lance asked. “Is there anywhere you haven’t been yet?”

“Well.” Shay smiled sweetly in return. “I’ve only really been visiting a few places in the America’s so far but I leave for Thailand in a couple of days for about a week and then after that it’s Singapore and then after that I have no idea.”

“No idea?” Pidge gawped from Lance’s right, their mouth full of food. “How can you have no idea?”

Shay giggled. “I’ll go where my company takes me and they’ll go wherever the work is. I assume I’ll be in Asia for a while though so I won’t be back home for a couple of months at the least.”

Lance picked at his food idly with his fork, trying his best not to make eye contact with any of the people on the other side of the table. As fate would have it, Keith was positioned directly opposite Lance with Shiro on his left side, who was also sitting beside Pidge, and Allura on his right who was also next to Shay. 

The table was cramped up enough as it was but it didn’t help that Keith had his plate and drink pushed so far into the middle that Lance had to position his right on the edge of the table, using one hand to make sure it didn’t fall into his lap.

“That’s a long time.” Hunk mumbled, Lance gave him a reassuring thigh squeeze.

Shay smiled sadly back at him and reached her hand over the table to hold his cheek lovingly. “I know… But y’know I’ll be calling you everyday to bore you with my boring rock stories.”

“It’s not boring.” Hunk tried to argue but he was blushing too hard at her touch that his voice barely came out as a squeak.

Lance couldn’t help the wide smile that spread across his cheeks as he looked at them. Lance had been there when Hunk and Shay first met almost two years ago at a college open day back when they were in their last year of high school and he’d watched the way Hunk’s face lit up every time he got a text or message from “the girl who helped him really know what college was the dream college.”

He was also there when the two finally met up again when they all got accepted and moved into this new town together. It hadn’t taken long for the two to become besotted with each other and Lance was proud at the beautiful, lovely girl that his best friend had fallen almost immediately for.

The best kind of love.

Lance felt nothing but love for his closest friends and really enjoyed to see the way they all interacted with each other, especially in their relationships. Well except Pidge, Pidge had made it clear when they first met that they would never be so weak as to fall for the false promises of “love.”

Pidge had a very dark and dreary opinion of love.

As if they were a mind reader, Pidge reached over and tapped Lance in the shoulder to get his attention. When Lance turned to them, he could see the massive shit-eating grin spread across their cheeks.

“What?” Lance leaned in and whispered to not disturb the other conversations that had started around the table.

“Keith’s been staring at you for the past five minutes.” Pidge leaned right in and whispered quietly into Lance’s ear, so quietly in fact that Lance thought he had misheard at first. But as he twisted his head to look he saw that Keith’s eyes were in fact staring right at him, he didn’t even bother turning away when Lance caught him staring.

Lance turned back to Pidge but he could feel his cheeks burning up. “So?”

Pidge shrugged and started to lean back once more. “Just thought you’d like to know.”

Lance turned back to face the main conversation of the group, kicking his foot against the table leg absentmindedly to try and drag his focus away from the fact that Keith was still looking at him, like he was a statue or something locked in place.

“Lance. Knock it off.” Keith suddenly growled.

Lance jumped in surprise. “What?”

“My leg. Stop kicking it.”

“I’m kicking the table.” Lance argued. 

“No.” Keith suddenly shifted and landed a swift kick on Lance’s shin. “That was my leg.”

“Don’t kick me.” Lance growled back, throwing a kick forward with all his might but the responding gasp of pain did not come from Keith’s lips.

“ _ Ouch! _ ” Shiro growled in pain, the entire table turned to him with eyes filled with worry. “Let’s nip this at the bud before it gets worse. You two are banned from talking to each other for the rest of the meal.”

“Keith started it.” Lance mumbled.

“Shut the fuck up, Lance.”

“Silence.” Shiro repeated and both boys did as they were told and fell into silence. Lance pulled his legs in beneath his seat to save from any further arguments. 

“We should really go about booking you two some sort of trip together or something.” Allura giggled looking to the young boys on the other end of the table. “Give you guys a weekend or something to work out all your tensions and talk about the past and stuff.”

“They’ll work something out.” Pidge muttered and both Keith and Lance turned to them and shot them their own filthy looks.

“It might actually be a good idea. We could do a book group thing at the same time. Shiro, can you remind me to look into that when we get home?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” Shiro smiled sweetly at her.

He must have felt the entire tables eyes drift to him as he immediately blushed deep red and went to reach for the back of his neck, a habit Lance had picked up on that Shiro did when he was nervous or embarrassed.

“Sweetheart.” Pidge repeated in a feminine, sing song voice. “My dear sweetheart.”

Shiro immediately groaned but everyone else at the table was smiling so he didn’t groan too much for long.

“Yes darling?” Lance turned to face Pidge, fluttering his eyelashes flirtily. “This is your sweetheart.”

“Don’t make fun of pet names.” Shay giggled, holding her hand over her mouth as she laughed. “They’re cute. Endearing even.”

“What does Hunk call you?” Pidge smirked, Hunk turned to face them with an offended, dirty look, asking for Pidge to be quiet without the words.

“Goose.”

“Goose?!” Lance burst out laughing immediately, he sensed dozens of eyes from around the restaurant fall on him but he couldn’t stop. “Hunk! My dude! I thought you were cool.”

Hunk scoffed in embarrassment blushing deep red. “Oh please. Let’s not pretend like you don’t use pet names for literally everyone you meet.”

“Pet names like that are for weaklings.” Lance crossed his arms after wiping the stray tears from his eyes. “I’m not going to use some boring generic name when I could make something up. Something with a bit more meaning. For example, big booty bunny boy. You learn something new from each word. Big, got that booty, he cute like a bunny and he my boy.”

“I remember you called that boyfriend you had in high school that. But there was something else as well.” Shay smiled. “What was his name? Didn’t you used to call him by some sweet short pet name?”

“No.” Lance gawped, looking at Hunk for help. He silently looked at Shay, pleading for her to sense the tone but, like the sweet innocent thing she was, she didn’t pick up on it and kept pushing. 

“I swear you did.” She teased. “What was it? Muffin? Pumpkin? Tulip? Oh no! I remember! It was cupcake right? I swear you used to say it all the time, that’s why it took me so long to learn the actual guys name, Hunk, what was his name?”

“Keith.” Hunk mumbled awkwardly, reaching forward to take hold of her hand to catch her attention. She looked over to him and he must have signalled pretty well as her eyes immediately fell on Keith.

“Oh?” Shay widened her eyes in surprise. “Is this  _ that _ Keith?” 

Lance froze and turned to Hunk slowly who had turned back to him with apologetic eyes. Lance wanted nothing more than the floor to just swallow him up and never spit him out again.  

“Umm yeah.” Lance nodded. “Keith and I knew each other in high school.”

“You could sure say that.” Pidge muttered, taking a sip from their straw. 

“Well…” Shay could probably sense the sudden awkward atmosphere so tried to cover her tracks quickly. “Well I’m glad you guys have met up again, it’s always good to keep friends from high school, I find.”

The entire table grunted in agreement before falling into a slightly uncomfortable silence.

“... So cupcake, huh?” Keith suddenly spoke up and Lance's eyes shot to him. “Guess I missed the memo on that one.”

“Keith. Shut up.” Lance groaned, throwing his head in his hands. “Why is it only my cringey past that gets brought up all the time?”

Pidge sniggered beside him. “Because you're the only one who has a cringey past.”

“Oh really?” Lance raised an eyebrow to issue a challenge. “I don't remember it being me who threw up on their laptop in the middle of their first class of their senior year.”

Pidge glared at him. Hard. “I had a big breakfast and that guy in front of me kept eating his own earwax. I'd like to see you not puke at that.”

“Well what about that time you wanted to ask that girl out in your history class back in high school and basically recited the entire declaration of independence?” Lance smirked. “Pretty damn cringey that.”

“You wanna talk about asking people out? What about that guy you tried to ask out last year but headbutted him into a state of unconsciousness.”

“What about the fact that you're still too short to ride all the rides at nearly any theme park we go to?”

“I'm sorry what? I can't understand people who didn't know how to tie their own shoelaces until they were 17.” Pidge snapped back quickly.

Lance tensed. “At least I could tell the time before I hit my teens.”

“Lance!” Hunk gasped.

“I'm sorry I ran out of ones for Pidge!”

“Didn't Pidge dye their hair black for nearly a year and demand everyone call them Raven? I remember someone telling me that.” Allura mumbled, thinking aloud.

Pidge turned to her with a look of betrayal which soon shifted to anger as she growled. “Allura talks in her sleep. She once woke me up by calling out for the egg lord to save her.”

Allura gawped before turning her head around the table before looking at Shiro and gasping. “Shiro’s 21 and already going grey!”

“Allura!” Shiro gawped at her in shock. The entire table snickered as Shiro shyly twiddled with his slightly greying fringe between his fingers. 

Keith had to hold his stomach as he took in deep breaths between laughter before Shiro turned and glared at him. 

“Laugh it up, Keith. Maybe try not to laugh so hard you vomit on your partner's crotch this time.”

Lance stared at Keith who immediately stopped laughing and went wide eyed, scanning the table for people reactions but everyone was laughing way too hard.

“Oh my God.” Lance tried to gasp for breath but it was difficult as he continued to point and laugh at Keith. “You vomited on your partner. Keith wins most cringey past.”

“Least I lasted longer than 60 seconds when I first lost my virginity.” Keith retorted, giving Lance the most pointed look he could, which wasn’t missed by the rest of the table. 

“Everybody is fast when they first lose their V card, cupcake.” Lance winked. “At least I managed to make it out of my boxers.”

“Awwww!” Allura giggled. “You called him cupcake!”

“What?” Lance rounded back in surprise. “No I didn't! I said ‘asshole’ why would I say cupcake?”

“You said cupcake.” Pidge sniggered again and slapped their hand over Lance's shoulder. “Oh god. This is too good.”

Lance pouted leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his front. “Shut up, you're all cruel.” 

“... You did say cupcake though.”

“Hunk! How could you?!”

The group fell into a fit of giggles as they all began to finish off their meals. A few members of the group ordered some desserts which caused some shifting around to better suit the decisions. Pidge moved to the opposite end of the table to share a dessert with Shay causing Allura, Keith and Shiro to all move down so that Shiro was on Lance’s right.

But then when the desserts reached the table, Allura let out a faint gasp. “I don’t think I can eat all this by myself.”

Allura looked pleadingly at Shiro, who was adamant earlier that he didn’t want a dessert, but as soon as he caught her eye he was quick to give in and signalled Keith to switch seats with him to eat their desserts.

Keith positioned himself at the very edge of his seat putting as much distance between him and Lance as he could.

Keith was now the only one at the table who didn’t have a dessert sat in front of him and for a second Lance felt bad and was tempted to ask if Keith wanted to try his out but just before Lance could form the words himself Keith was staring down at his dessert with want in his eyes.

“So… Lance, what did you get?” Keith gulped.

Lance raised an eyebrow at him, pulling the dessert closer towards him. No way was Keith going to ask for some, Lance was fine with sharing if he put the effort in but Keith made his choice. He can’t mooch now.

“A cupcake?” Pidge gigged from the other end, to which Lance responded with a nice brandishing of his middle finger.

“Strawberry Cheesecake.” Lance muttered, placing his spoon down on the table for a second to use both hands to protect his dessert. “No you can't have any.”

Keith pouted like a petulant child and Lance just watched him for a second to make sure he didn't pull off any monkey business.

“Oh shoot, Lance.” Hunk suddenly gawped turning around, Lance turned to face and watched his friends mouth which was absolutely chock-a-block filled with food. “Before I forget, the landlord expects the rent by the 28th this month. Do you get paid before then?”

Lance nodded his head but he rolled his eyes simultaneously. “Yes luckily, that guy needs to stop letting us know this stuff last minute though. What would he expect if I said I didn’t get paid before then?”

Hunk shrugged, returning to his food.

Lance sighed and returned his focus to his food. But, when Lance looked back at his dessert he saw that it was different than how he left it, with a piece of the corner being missing. Lance stared up to the culprit immediately and almost cried as he saw Keith quickly chewing the sweet goodness in his mouth. 

Lance gawped at Keith’s outrageousness. “Did you just-? Did you just steal some of my dessert?”

“It’s good.” Keith mumbled through a mouth full of food before reaching forward again. “Let me have some more.”

“Some more?!” Lance gasped. “I haven’t even had any yet. Jog on, mullet brain.”

“Stop being such a fat ass.” Keith growled back, the fork he’d stolen from Lance poised and ready to pounce. “Give it.”

“No!” Lance growled, quickly moving the plate away from Keith’s clutches, but the mullet was quick and jabbed his fork out directly onto the cheesecake and managed to pull away another large bite. “Keith!! No!”

By that point the group had turned to face their antics and were laughing hysterically as Keith got another forkful of the cake.

“Keeith!” Lance whined loudly. “There’s barely any left!”

“And it sure looks good.” Keith dropped the fork and instead focused both of his hands on grabbing the plate and wrenching it from Lance’s grip and holding in front of him in victory “Would you look at that?”

“Keith. I’m serious. Don’t do it.” Lance growled.

“Or what?” Keith smirked, bringing the plate up close to his mouth, positioning the cake close to his lips.

Lance snarled, trying to reach for the plate but Keith kept it firmly out of his reach. “You’ll regret it, Keith.” 

“I don’t think I will.” Keith laughed before suddenly bringing the plate up and tipping it so that the large last piece of cake fell into his mouth. Some of the cheese stuck to his lip and Keith made a big show of wiping it with his finger and sliding it over his lip in a slow seductive manner.

“Mmh.” Keith laughed through a mouthful of food. “Delicious. I should have bought my own plate because I could totally go for more right about now.”

“You  _ should _ buy another since you owe me a cheesecake!” Lance’s voice was so high pitched he was pretty sure only dogs could hear him now but as he watched Keith’s smirk get bigger and bigger Lance quickly thought of a way to get him back.

“I don’t think so, Lance, think of that cheesecake as payment for me listening to all the shit you sa-”

Lance growled and suddenly grabbed hold of Keith’s collar, pulling him forward without a second thought, smashing their lips together. The sweet taste of the strawberry cheesecake hit him immediately but it was faintly masked by Keith’s usual taste. Lance let his tongue drift and lick across Keith’s bottom lip while he used one hand to curl in Keith’s hair and tug him in. 

After a couple of seconds, Lance pulled away, grinning smugly at Keith who did nothing but glare back at him. 

“You’re right.” Lance growled, still annoyed but feeling better as he stared at Keith’s completely appalled, bright red blushing face. “It’s really good.”

Lance turned back to the group who all stared at him with their eyes wide open, no one really knowing what to say, that is until Pidge grimaced and gagged from the other end of the table. 

“Get a room.” They growled and went back to focus on their dessert. “I don’t want to bring back up my dinner before I’ve even paid for it.”

The group descending into giggles again, Lance included, the conversation moved on soon after but Lance could just feel Keith's gaze boring into him from his right side.

The rest of the meal went smoothly thankfully. All paying without a hitch which was a surprise given they were 7 college students. Nice guy Shiro had attempted to pay for the entire meal all on his own but thankfully after a swift glare from Allura and a punch in the shoulder from Keith he relented and everyone paid for their respected meals. Well except for Shay of course since the night was for her. Lance had lent Hunk the extra money before they arrived since Lance was just about to get paid again whereas Hunk had another week and a bit till his pay day.

The group slowly filed out into the street with majority of them walking forward while Lance and Hunk held back to talk for a minute.

“Hey dude.” Lance winked.

“Hey man.” Hunk smiled back. “Great night right?”

“It was amazing. Shay looked beautiful tonight, bro.” Lance smirked, wiggling his eyebrows teasingly at his friend. “You're a lucky man.”

“I know right? She’s pretty amazing, I forgot how much I missed her and she’s going again soon…” Hunk sighed unhappily and stared longingly ahead at his girlfriend who was a picture of happiness, giggling and smiling beside her friends.

“You alright dude?” Lance frowned in concern as he took one hand and place it on his friend's shoulder.

“… Don't tell her this but she makes it seem so easy.” 

“What do you mean?” Lance cocked his head to the side in confusion. 

“Well like. I love her and I hate when she goes and I get all clingy, y'know like I always am. But she's just so mature about it and knows exactly what to say. I'm more than lucky man, I'm actually blessed to have her.”

“Dude. I love the two of you so much.” Lance winked. “I think the two of you were made for each other. The Geologist and the Engineer. Sounds like a movie or something.”

“Sure it does, Lance.” Hunk mumbled but Lance could see the fond smile he held as he watched over his girlfriend who was currently walking slightly ahead with the others.

“But seriously dude. I’m super happy for you.” Lance smiled bumping his fist into Hunk’s chest. “Watching your love life unfold has been like watching an oscar-worthy movie. So beautiful and pure.”

“What about your love life?” Hunk turned and pointed a look at Keith who was walking a good few metres behind the entire group. More importantly, out of earshot.

“Who knows. I’m pretty stupid when it comes to love.”

“That move in the restaurant with Keith was pretty stupid. Kissing in public, in front of his brother?” Hunk mumbled. 

“Yeah. Probably.” Lance shrugged in return. “I’ll probably get an earful for it later but it was so worth it just for the look on his face.”

Hunk gave him another look of pure pity, one that Lance did not like the fact that he was getting used to. “You already know my opinion on it Lance, but I’m serious. This relationship - if it can even be called that - will not end well for either of you if it continues like this. You’re setting yourself up for the same pain as before.”

“Maybe.”

“If you know it’s gonna happen then why keep doing it?”

Lance couldn’t help the grin that spread across his cheeks as he leaned in real close. “Because the sex is just so damn good and worth it.” 

Hunk recoiled and tried to pull away but Lance kept him close, wrapping his arms around him like the clingy best friend he was and held on as the two approached the point where they would all start separating.

“You staying out with Shay?” Lance asked. 

“Yeah, I’ll… Umm… Probably see you tomorrow.” Hunk gulped nervously, his arm wrapped around Lance’s shoulder as the two reached the end of the street. “I’m going to spend the night at Shay’s since her roommate is away.”

“Oh really?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “The roommates gone. Shay’s leaving town in a couple of days. You don’t have any morning classes tomorrow. The stars are lining up for you tonight buddy.”

Lance had never seen Hunk blush as red as he did as he stuttered out his response. “We’re just going to watch movies and go to bed. We’re not all fiends, Lance.”

“Why do I feel like you’re insinuating something here, Hunk?” Lance chuckled, wrapping his other arm around his friend and hugging him tightly. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The two parted and Hunk stepped over to Shay who was currently saying her goodbyes to Pidge, Allura, and Shiro.

“Stay safe you crazy kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Lance called out and Hunk’s face grimaced immediately before he reached Shay and wrapped an arm around her.

“Is there even anything you wouldn’t do?” A voice suddenly grunted behind Lance, taking him off guard.

Lance jumped in shock, spinning around with his arms flailing like a ragdoll as he let out a pathetic wince. “Keith? Dude don’t sneak up on a guy like that.”

“I’ve been behind you the whole time.” Keith replied back deadpan, Lance noticed how Keith had done up his leather jacket to the top so that it now covered the bottom of his face with his hands stuffed deep into the pockets.

“Well… At least you get the best view.” Lance winked flirtatiously before taking in more of Keith’s form, he seemed to be shivering. “You cold?”

“No.” Keith lied with a roll of his eyes.

“Liar.” Lance smirked before reaching up and untangling his own scarf from around his neck before leaning over and wrapping it around Keith. “Use this. I can’t have you getting a cold and giving it to me next time we enter pound town.”

Keith actually hissed in disgust. “Don’t call it that.”

Lance winked and turned his back on Keith once more, quietly happy that Keith hadn’t removed, or even argued for that matter, about the scarf. 

“So what should I call it?” Lance chuckled, obviously trying his luck. “Boneville, Kenfucky, United Kingdom and the republic of Lance’s ass?”

“You are actually the worst person I know.” Keith growled from behind. “That last one didn’t even make any sense.”

“It made perfect sense.” Lance smirked. “You’re just stupid.”

“Sure, Lance.” Keith grumbled but Lance could see the effort he was putting in to keep up with Lance’s big steps as the two rejoined the larger group. 

Shay noticed them approach and immediately stepped forward and wrapped Lance up in one of her big, tight, bear hugs, not that Lance minded he was used to these types of hugs from Hunk so he enjoyed the sensation of her gently lifting him from the ground before placing him back down again.

“It was so good to see you, Lance.” Shay giggled into his ear. “Thanks for looking after Hunk for me.”

“You know me,” Lance smirked as he stepped out of the hug when it was finished. “Always gotta focus to keep that rapscallion in line.”

Shay let out a surprised laugh in response before approaching Keith and wrapping him up in the same large hug. “It was lovely to meet you. Sorry about earlier.” 

Keith looked like a deer caught in headlights, ready to dash at any moment but as the hug continued he slowly relaxed into it, even wrapping his own arms around Shay’s middle to squeeze her back. 

“Umm… It’s fine.” Keith coughed. “I wasn’t really sure what was going on anyway.”

Shay smiled as she pulled away before giving the pair a final wave before jumping excitedly like a little puppy over to Hunk and wrapping her arms around his back. Lance watched as Hunk looked back to her over his shoulder and gave her the most affectionate smile that Lance had seen all night.

How lovely it would be to be so in love like those two were.

Lance sighed, waving goodbye to the pair as they began heading off in the direction of Shay’s student apartment, leaving the 5 remaining members of the group awkwardly stood in a circle facing each other.

“I should get home, I’ve got extra morning politics with Coran tomorrow.” Allura sighed. “I need as much rest as possible to be able to deal with his boundless energy at that time of day, let alone on a Sunday.”

Shiro nodded in agreement and the two began heading off to the car park down the road before turning back sharply. “Did anyone need a lift?”

Lance shook his head and idly pointed to his apartment complex which he could already see in the distance. Pidge thought for a moment before nodding her head and charging over to them, Pidge only lived about a 10 minute walk past Lance’s place but getting a lift would be better to save them that time.

The group turned then to Keith who was still shaking with Lance’s scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, tighter than Lance could remember tying it.  

“It’s fine.” Keith mumbled. “I feel like walking.”

The group nodded before saying their goodbyes once again leaving Keith and Lance alone on the sidewalk.

“So umm… I guess that’s good night.” Lance smiled sweetly. 

“I’m going your way.” Keith muttered back, walking on ahead in the direction of Lance’s place. “I don’t live that far from your apartment.”

“Oh.” Lance gulped as he quickly made his way to catch up to Keith’s quick steps.

The two walked in silence for a while, Lance suspected they’d walk in silence the entire journey but a few minutes later Keith opened up a conversation that Lance hadn’t expected.

“So… How does Shay know so much about me?” Keith asked, his expression was emotionless which frightened Lance a little bit since he didn’t know how to react.

“Umm…” Lance rubbed at his cold neck awkwardly. “Hunk and Shay were talking back when we were… Y'know… So I assume Hunk spoke to her when things went south.”

“Oh.” Keith mumbled. “You spoke to Hunk about that stuff… About us?”

Lance frowned in confusion. “Well yeah. He’s my best friend. My brother. I can’t take a piss without letting that guy know first.”

“I’m sure he appreciates that.” Keith snorted.

“Did you… Umm… Did you not talk to anyone about us?” Lance asked, trying his luck since Keith opened the conversation anyway.

“Not really. Shiro a little bit but not much.” Keith replied honestly. “... You remember what I was like in high school. The only person I wanted to talk to about that stuff with was the only person that I couldn’t.”

Lance nodded his head sadly and looked over to Keith who still held the same blank facial expression as before.

“Not that that matters now.” Keith suddenly shrugged. “It’s all in the past now. We live. We learn.”

“Couldn’t have learnt that much,” Lance bumped shoulders with him. “You somehow managed to fall into bed with me again, did you not?”

Keith shuddered. “Don’t remind me.”

“Hey!” Lance gasped. “I’m great in the sac and you know it. Why else would you be coming back to the old Sir Lancelot?”

“I honestly have no idea.”

Just as Lance noticed the front door of his apartment he quickly jumped ahead and stepped in front of Keith, effectively blocking his path before taking hold of the scarf that was still pulled tight around Keith’s neck. Lance pulled experimentally on the ends and grinned when Keith responded and shifted closer into Lance until their chests touched. 

“I have a slight idea.” Lance smirked, leaning in to Keith’s ear and running his lips from top to bottom. Lance could feel his heart beating heavy in his chest, and if he focused he thought he could feel Keith’s too against him. Lance let out a happy sigh as he kissed at Keith’s ear again. “Es que yo sin ti, Y tú sin mi, Dime quién puede ser feliz, Esto no me gusta.”

Keith shuddered in response. “Esto no me gusta? Isn’t that a song?”

Lance leaned back with a smile so that they faced each other head on. “You caught me. I can’t resist a little Enrique Inglesias.”

“What does it mean?”

Lance shrugged. “That not even Billy Ray Cyrus could match up to your luscious locks.”

Keith sighed back in return and leaned further into Lance, wrapping his arms around Lance’s waist and pressing tight against him. “If you’re going to kiss me just do it already. The foreplay is really not necessary, Lance.”

“You wish this was foreplay.” Lance smirked but did as he was told, leaning in until his lips brushed softly against Keith. “No quiero que me dejes por favor. _ ” _

When he pulled away once more, Keith was glaring at him.

“Do I have to do everything myself?” He growled before harshly pulling Lance against him. Their teeth banged together and Lance wanted to pull away to laugh but Keith kept him firmly in place, one arm circling up his back and into his hair to angle his neck downwards so that Keith could kiss him hungrily.

The two kissed lustfully for a few minutes, hands exploring where their minds dared them to as Lance sneakily lead them backwards closer towards the front door of the building. The streets were empty so Lance had no problem rolling his hips against Keith’s, feeling their hardening erections brush against one another.

“I want you.” Keith pulled back and whispered with a slight growl in his tone. “Right now.”

“On a Saturday?” Lance mock gasped as best as he could but Keith was on him again in seconds, kissing his lips, his cheeks, his nose, everywhere. “This is a breaking of the arrangement, Keith.”

“We’ll write it off on account of the drinks.” Keith grumbled back, his hands travelled down to cup Lance’s ass before squeezing roughly.

“You had a coke and I had a milkshake, Keith, it's hardly criminal. But that must be the drink talking.”

Lance rolled his hips again, moaning when their erections made contact once more.

“Mmmh.” Lance moaned againsts Keith’s lips. He knew where this was going and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t absolutely giddy about it.

“Fucking hell, Lance.”

“My place?” Lance smirked breaking off the kiss instantly, he pulled his body completely away from Keith but took a tight hold of his hand leading him towards the front entrance of the apartment complex. Lance wiggled his hips with a smirk over his shoulder. “My ass has got your name written all over it.”

“I actually hate you.” Keith groaned but allowed himself to be led inside. Once they reached the lift, Lance found it impossible to keep his hands off of the goods. He ran his fingers down Keith’s arms, his chest, across his back and into his hair. Tangling themselves in the dark strands to hold Keith in place as their lips sloppily mashed against one another. 

Lance wasted no time before thrusting his tongue into Keith’s mouth and allowing himself to be picked up by Keith’s strong hands, circling his legs around Keith’s hips and holding for dear life as Keith tried to push him up higher against the lift wall. Lance was faintly aware of the lift stopping, the doors opening and the sound of a loud gasp before the lift shut again and continued its ascent to Lance’s floor.

When they reached it, it was Keith who twisted them around, holding tight to Lance’s clinging frame before walking them out of the lift and towards the front door of Lance’s apartment.

“Keys.” Keith mumbled against his lips.

Lance removed one of his hands to thrust his hand into his jacket pocket, searching desperately for the familiar scratch of his keys. When he found them he pulled them out and blindly plunged them at the door, missing the key hole completely.

Keith chuckled against his lips and leaned Lance up against the door as he used one hand to take the keys and find the keyhole. Keith twisted his head to look at what he was doing and Lance used the opportunity to layer wet, sloppy kisses along Keith’s neck and face, unable to reach anything else due to the scarf tangled around both of them now.

Lance heard the familiar click of the door unlocking before his body was pushed backwards with the weight of the door as Keith stepped in, reclaiming Lance’s lips once more in his own.

“Where to?” Keith whispered through the kiss again.

“Bedroom. Now.” Lance growled instinctively, thrusting his hands harshly into Keith’s hair and tugging him back for a second. “I want you inside me in no longer than five minutes.”

“That can be arranged.”

It didn’t take long for the two to be spread out across Lance’s bed, his clothes as always were thrown randomly and dotted around the room, some on the floor some landing on different pieces of furniture. 

The prep had been over and done with quickly, both individuals too desperate to get to the main event to spend any extra time on anything else. Keith was already towering over Lance, his usual speed and vigour was gone, replaced with slow, gentle thrusts inside of Lance’s hole.

Lance panted as he clung to Keith tightly, his arms wrapped entirely around his back keeping him pinned down on Lance’s chest. Keith was responsive and slowly peppered chaste kisses into Lance’s neck as he continued the slow pace. When he first started, Lance had expected to hate the slowness and thought he’d be begging for Keith’s usual quickfire but this was… Better? In some way. 

Keith was angled just right and continuously poked at Lance’s prostate causing the darker boy to gasp and moan filthily while he softly whispered Keith’s name to space. As if the pair were the only two in the world left but being any louder would wake the dead. 

“Lance…” Keith moaned back against Lance’s neck. 

“ _ Oh god. _ ” Lance whimpered in response, the pressure below his abdomen tightening. “ _ Keith, don’t stop. So good. _ ”

“God, Lance. You’re so warm and tight.” Keith whispered. “I fucking love being inside you.”

“Mmh, I love it too baby.” Lance giggled, tightening his grip to an almost painful constriction around Keith. Even though the two were rubbing against each, their sweat giving them a slight slide, it still didn’t feel close enough. Lance wanted everything. Even the stuff that Keith wasn’t willing to give him. He was tempted to take it all, leave nothing left.

Lance must have came three times before Keith finally collapsed beside him, pulling Lance in close as he shuddered and gasped from the oversensitivity, hours had passed and Lance was willing to admit that tonight was probably one of his top five favourite nights he’s ever had. 

“Fuck me.” Lance whimpered in shock, tangling his legs up with Keith’s, instantly clinging to the heater that was Keith Kogane.

“I believe I just did.” Keith retorted back smugly.

Lance snorted in reply but couldn’t help the full feeling swell in his heart. “Yeah okay, cowboy.”

The two laid there for a couple of minutes, Lance leaned into Keith’s chest and breathed in his strong, musky scent happily. Not bothering to hide the puurs and happy whines that escaped. 

“I’m willing to admit that no one rocks the bedroom like we rock the bedroom.”

Keith snorted. “Oh really?”

“Yes. We need to start generalising to other rooms.”

“I’m sure Hunk would really appreciate that.”

Lance giggled, running his fingers in circles around Keith’s chest. “He’s not here. Makes it difficult for him to argue.”

Keith let out another chuckle and the two just laid there for a couple more minutes, Lance could feel his body begin to close down, not long after Keith began to stir before gently trying to pull away. 

“Alright, I’ve got to go.” Keith whispered, pulling himself away from Lance’s snake-like limbs that had encased him. Lance tried to cooperate as best as he could but his limbs had fallen asleep without him so Keith had to physically peel off each limb and place it back comfortably on the bed. 

Keith carefully stepped up from the bed, searching for his clothes and slowly pulling them on, but Lance could see that he kept one eye on the tanned boy at all times as he searched.

Lance purred as he arched his back off the bed, feeling the pool between his legs begin to expand due to both of their impatience to find and put on a condom before starting. Lance counted his stars that the two were both at least patient enough to use lube. Though, Lance shuffled his thighs again, even now it felt like Keith had been a bit too generous.

“You look good like that.” Keith suddenly growled back, approaching Lance at the bed once more. “All filled and fucked out.” 

“All for you.” Lance whimpered back pathetically, he tried to lift his arms to entice Keith to kiss him once more but his arms were too heavy and barely lifted an inch of the bed before dropping down again. Thankfully, Keith got the memo and leaned down once more into the bed, capturing Lance’s lips in his in a second. 

Lance didn’t even bother to hide the dirty, overthetop, moans that escaped through his lips and vibrated against Keith’s.

“If you keep doing that I’m going to want to fuck you again.” Keith smirked through the kiss before pulling away entirely and standing back up to his feet.

“Mmh… Too tired.”

Keith laughed. “Yeah I know.”

Lance smiled at the sound and curled deeper into the sex-smelling sheets. Soaking up the scents and feeling himself practically melt into it. 

“See you later, Lance.” Keith whispered, Lance was faintly aware of fingers running through his hair before they were removed.

Lance let out a whimper at the loss but quickly turned over onto his side and nestled into the pillows, hiding his face.

“Have a shower before you go to sleep.” A voice whispered again. “Don’t be disgusting.”

Lance mumbled some sort of curse word in response which was followed by a short chuckle and the sound of the door opening and closing with a quiet squeak.

Lance’s eyes were barely open before but after a couple of seconds they closed entirely and the weight of them felt impossible to lift again.

Lance could shower tomorrow. 


	9. Chapter Nine

The next few days went by in a blur. When Lance woke up, naked, alone and gross on Sunday he still felt a small swell in his heart that he knew Keith had put there. Lance had a full 10 hour shift at the coffee shop on Sunday so most of his day was spent daydreaming about Keith and having to wait patiently to be with him again on Tuesday.

Lance didn't even deter himself from the small bit of hope that gathered inside him. Things had been different on Saturday. In fact nearly everything had been different. Did that mean that something had changed inside of Keith?

What was so special on Saturday that caused Keith to be so different? The flirtatious behaviour at dinner. The walking home together. The kissing. The slow, passionate hot sex. Keith had even stayed for a while, not long sure, but at least his head managed to hit the pillow for once before he got up to leave.

Had Lance done something right? Was Keith… dare he think… falling for him again?

Sunday passed with thoughts of only Keith, Monday was more or less the same with a couple thoughts about his fuck-off ton of work that was being set from his major but mainly he thought of Keith. When Tuesday finally came, Lance felt a spring in his step as he attended his morning classes, a couple of classmates noticed his chipper attitude even Pidge had given him an extra hard glare in acknowledgment at lunch. Lance was looking and feeling great.

That was until Lance was on his way home from his last class, it couldn’t have been much past 2pm, Hunk was already at work so Lance knew he was heading home to an empty apartment but he assumed it wouldn’t be for long when Keith would come calling around 6 or 7pm like he usually did.

His mind officially changed when his phone buzzed and beeped in his pocket.

Lance pulled out his phone just as he reached the front door of the apartment complex. He decided to wait to go inside since he’d likely lose signal in the lift so answered the phone and pressed it slightly to his ear. He smiled when he saw Keith’s name pop on the caller ID.

“Keith?” Lance smiled down the receiver as he leaned against the wall of his building.

Keith’s voice came back kind of short and out of breath. “Hey Lance, I thought I'd call cause I'm too busy to text.”

“It's cool. What's up?”

“I can't make it tonight.” Keith hummed down the receiver. Lance listened in the background and heard what he thought sounded like a treadmill humming in the background. Was Keith working out? “I'm going to this party with a couple buddies of mine so I won't be stopping by like normal.”

“Oh?” Lance gulped, attempting very terribly to mask the disappointment in his tone. “I mean, sure, thanks for letting me know.”

Keith laughed throaty in response. “It's cool, I wouldn't want you just waiting in the dark like phantom of the Opera or something.”

“Is this the part where I laugh and pretend like I know what you're referencing?”

“Yes that's the part.”

Lance laughed with the most monotone laugh he could fake. “Haha. Nice reference, Keith. Sick one.”

Keith snorted in response, a sound which Lance couldn't help but smile at in return, regardless of the fact that he was currently being dumped to the side. “Alright I gotta go. I'll talk to you later.”

“Have fun. Don't vomit on any laps.”

“Thanks.”

Lance hung up the phone, disappointed a little that Keith wasn’t coming over tonight. He’d planned on something pretty special tonight, but apparently it would have to wait till next time. It was no big deal really, just one time, they both had their own lives which was why this arrangement was supposed to work so well.

Arrangement.

Lance was growing to despise that word more and more every day.

Best to get his mind of it, and what better way to do that then with some food. Lance pulled some ice cream from his freezer and settled down to binge watch a new TV show he was watching but hadn’t gotten around to for a while.

“Oh Jane!” Lance cried out a few hours later. “You’re doing great sweetie! Mateo is a lucky baby!”

Lance hadn’t really moved since the afternoon, except to grab more food and drinks from the kitchen, most of the day he’d spent sat in front of the old TV box, resting on his side on the old beat up couch that he and Hunk had bought off ebay back when they first moved into this place just over a year ago ready for their first year at college. The episode of his show he was watching ended and Lance decided to take a break and just watch some trash tv.

Absentmindedly flipping through the channels, Lance thought about what Keith must be doing right now. He was probably drunk off his ass.To be honest, Keith was never the type to make a fool of himself, in the few times Lance remembered being around a drunk Keith (which wasn’t a lot considering the pair were still underage now, even more so back when they were dating) he was just a lot more chatty than he was when sober. Sometimes, if Lance was lucky, he was a bit more loving which included lots of nuzzling and purring into Lance’s chest.

Lance had always liked those nights even if they were few and far between… and gone too soon.

Lance remembered one particular occasion, in fact thinking back it wasn’t too long before the break up, when both he and Keith had gotten pretty ridiculous at Lance’s parents new year party. The two had kissed the new year in together but it hadn’t stopped there. Lance remembered issuing his goodnights to friends and families being allowed to carry a very drunk Keith up the stairs and into the guest bedroom since Lance and Keith were usually separated during overnight stays.

Lance should point out he was also very drunk himself, but he was just about coherent to fake being sober enough to be considered a suitable protector of the stumbling, incoherent Keith.

They’d gotten to the guest room and Lance had laid Keith down in the bed, making sure to cover him with the blankets since the house was absolutely freezing at night. He remembers Keith’s grabby hands pulling him in, forcing him to get in bed beside him. He remembers kissing and exploring hands, breathy pants and bitten back moans… Keith lying beneath him, his face bright red, Lance slowly working him open with drunken fingers before finally pushing himself inside.

He remembers Keith pulling him down against him and biting down into his shoulder to keep himself from calling out. Remembers the slow, loving speed and awkward kisses and Keith telling him that he loved him…

Suddenly, waking him out of his daze, Lance’s phone began to vibrate against the coffee table. Lance leaned over to look, careful of his half erection pressed tight in his joggers.

“Keith?” Lance mumbled aloud, lifting the phone and holding it to his ear immediately. “Hello?”

“Lance?” Keith’s voice slurred down the receiver.

“Keith? Are you alright?” Lance mumbled, sitting up on the couch and twisting his legs round so his feet were on the floor. “Where are you?”

“Party.” Lance could hear a number of voices in the background, one of which sounded just as close to the receive as Keith was. “Need you to come get me.”

“Why?”

“No one else can.” Keith grumbled before suddenly snorting at something someone must have said around him. “Hurry up.”

“Keith, I don’t have a car.”

“Then walk. I’ll text you the address. See you in a bit.”

Immediately after, Keith hung up the phone before Lance could argue anymore and Lance couldn’t help the growl of frustration that left his mouth.

Lance pulled himself up to his feet and made his way over to the front door to put on his shoes. Since Keith left him no room to disagree, he wasn't about to just abandon him and prepared himself to leave. No sooner had he gather his keys and wallet had he received multiple text messages from Keith.

[11:32] _Keith: At the corner fo thdei and furrt_

[11:32] _Keith: Of third and fohr_

[11:33] _Keith: Forth_

[11:33] _Keith: By the high street_

Lance sighed as he grabbed his large jacket and threw it roughly over his shoulder. Keith was a fair way away, at least a 30 minute walk from here but Lance reckoned he could shave it to maybe 15 if he ran.

Just as Lance was about to take off the front door clicked and opened, almost knocking Lance back onto his ass with surprise.

“Oh! Buddy,” Hunk gasped. “What are you doing still up?”

“Keith drama.” Lance rolled his eyes and pointed to his phone. “He wants me to come pick him up from a party and take him home safe I assume.”

“Oh? He didn't come over tonight?” Hunk frowned. “Did he cancel?”

“Yes he called me this afternoon to let me know. It's fine. I don't mind going to get him as long as it means I get to see for myself that he’s safe.” Lance smiled. “Anyway, I've got to go. Don't want him to move from where he said he was so I won't be able to find him.”

“Have fun.” Hunk snorted, moving out of the way of the door so Lance could squeeze past. “Oh and Lance. Don’t forget.”

“What?”

“Drunk people have the loosest lips.” He winked. “Maybe you’ll get a little truth out of him.”

Lance blushed bright red as he waved a final goodbye and ran from the flat, down the stairs and out of the apartment complex. It was lucky Lance was wearing his “gym clothes”, he says Gym clothes, they were clothes designed for the gym but since Lance never went to the gym they were mostly just comfy lounge around clothes.

Still a run might do him some good, he had put on a little holiday weight and his local pool was closed until February so maybe getting out and running more often would do him some good. He took off into a fast run into the direction of Keith’s position and didn’t stop even when he pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it.

Lance shot out a quick text to Shiro asking to talk to him, he only hoped that Shiro would respond because Lance had absolutely no idea what to do with Keith when he found him.

Did he take Keith back to the apartment? Well… Hunk was home and it was a bit of a trek for someone who was drunk. He had absolutely no idea where Keith lived… Though apparently it wasn’t far from Lance’s. But that probably still meant it was a bit of a trek, and Lance didn’t really want to fork out for a taxi if he could help it.

Lance put the thought at the back of his mind for now when it seemed like Shiro wasn’t going to answer him right now anyway and continued running down street after street until he heard the sound of muffled house music coming from a few houses down. He stopped outside, this was definitely the address and by the looks of all the young adults stood outside drinking from vodka bottles like they were bottles of water, this had to be where Keith was, no doubt about it.

Lance saw a group stood off by the open front door, they seemed nice enough, they all had red cups with varying amounts of liquid in and were laughing heartily at whatever they were talking about.  

“I’m looking for Keith.” Lance mumbled to the group, stepping forward and trying to act as confident as possible, interrupting their conversation unapologetically. “Have you seen him?”

“You mean Insane Kogane?” One of the boys turned to him, a stereotypical frat boy voice and a red cup filled with suspicious looking liquid now on closer inspection. “He’s out back probably fucking that French exchange student by now. Wouldn’t interrupt if i were you, bro, Kogane’s pretty protective of his fuckables.”

“I’ll be sure to keep my defensive stance up.” Lance chuckled awkwardly before ditching the group immediately and heading towards the backyard of the house, ignoring the pang in his chest as best he could. He searched for a second, it was difficult to pinpoint Keith through the onslaught of bodies all moving around in the dark.

When Lance did finally catch sight of Keith his heart dropped to the floor. Lance had expected that Keith might be flirting with someone or maybe even kissing someone given the frat boy’s warning from before. What he didn’t expect was to see Keith perched in the lap of some young looking guy, the two grinding against each other like dogs in heat.

The other boy’s shirt was lost, where it had gone Lance didn’t know, but Keith’s was bunched up at his armpits as the other boy fumbled clumsily at Keith’s nipples, twisting and rubbing them in a way that Lance knew Keith didn’t like.

He was still moaning though...

Keith curled his fingers into the other guys hair and pulled him tighter against him. Lance almost gagged at the scene, Keith was almost rutting against the other dudes thighs and Lance could hear his moans from here.

“Kogane.” Lance called out in annoyance. Annoyance at Keith but also at himself. Why did he trick himself into thinking Saturday had been any different? Keith was just using him when Lance had something he wanted. He'd always made that clear, why had Lance convinced himself something different again?

Keith turned to the side and noticed Lance almost immediately, he shot Lance a wide smirk before rutting once more against the guys thigh for good measure. He quickly jumped to his feet, avoiding the guys grabby fingers and wobbled over to Lance.

“Hey sexy.” Keith purred, attempting to pull Lance in for a kiss but Lance pushed him back slightly by the chest before their lips could connect. “What's wrong? Are you mad at me?”

“Of course not. I'm just tired. Are you ready? I have class first thing tomorrow Keith.”

“Ooh.” Keith giggled running his fingers along Lance's sharp chin, down his neck and across his clothed collar bones, the touch was so soft and familiar it almost sent a shiver through Lance’s body. “Someone’s a sour patch kid. What's got you in such a mood?”

“Nothing, Keith. Can we go?” Lance let Keith lean all of his drunken weight on him.

Keith shrugged as best as he could, then pulled himself back of Lance immediately. “Sure, just let me say goodbye to a few people first.”

Lance followed Keith around the house at about an arm's length as he continued to catch the attention of random people who he would then apologise to and say goodbye before moving on to someone else.

Not too long after, the two exited the house and approached the same group of lads that Lance had spoken to before. They all gave him a cheeky smile and wink before continuing with their stories, the leader of the pack remained standing to speak with Keith who was grumbling something under his breath.

“Bro, before you go, you gotta tell me.” The frat boy from before suddenly stepped to Lance and pulled his eyes away from Keith and the leader. “Was he with that French student?”

Lance froze but nodded his head, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible but struggling. “Yep. Got a right eyeful.”

“Damn. Kogane works so fast.” The guy gawped as if impressed. “I don’t get how gay guys can do that. It’s like they’re all really easy… Or maybe that’s just Keith. He’s hooking up with someone new at every single party, straight, gay, bi, no one turns down Kogane.”

“Every party?” Lance whistled. “I’d get bored doing that all the time.”

“Well… I can tell you that I know at least, like, 40 people that Kogane has slammed, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down.” The frat guy lifted his hands in some weird sign and then fist bumped Lance’s open hand. “Let’s face it. We all secretly wanna be like Kogane.”

“Sorry, bro.” Lance snorted in surprise, though he could feel his temper rising with each passing comment from the frat guy. “Not me.”

“Each to their own, bro.” The frat guy laughed, clapping a hand on Lance’s back and immediately pushing him forward, Lance crashed into Keith’s body, sending him forward halfway through his conversation.

Lance grabbed at Keith’s shoulder and steadied him again while he apologised and glared at frat boy who was practically wetting himself.

“Fuck sake, Lance.” Keith rolled his eyes.

Lance blushed and stared up at the man Keith had addressed in conversation, he was a lot taller than Lance, well over 6ft with the body of rugby player. If Lance wasn’t annoyed, tired, or hung up, normally he’d be Lance’s type and he’d give flirting a go…

Oh hell, he could at least try.

“Wow.” Lance leaned forward and rested a hand on the guys muscular bicep. “You’re like every he-man and action man I ever had put together. I’m Lance.”

The guy chuckled good heartedly but Lance immediately felt the “sorry I’m straight” vibe so backed off without another word, he wasn’t about to make the guy uncomfortable, besides, straight or not, he was still good to look at.

“Todd.” The guy nodded. “I’m on the American Football team, this is my party.”

“Oh well nice to meet you. Sorry to gatecrash.” Lance chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Keith called me to come grab him so I figured I’d swing by.”

That’s right, Lance, seem cool and edgy, hell you didn’t have to come pick up Keith, you did it because you’re cool and edgy.

“If you swung by, why are you all sweaty?” Keith rolled his eyes again and elbowed backwards right into Lance’s gut. “You clearly ran here.”

“Shut up, mullet, I wasn’t talking to you.” Lance sneered into Keith’s ear before looking back up at Todd with the sweet smile he inherited from his mother. “Well, we probably should get going, I’ve gotta find sleeping beauty a bed that it won’t matter if he pukes in.”

Todd chuckled and reached forward to shake Lance’s hand one final time before pulling Keith in for a quick man hug.

“So, have you finally settled down, Keith? Got yourself a boyfriend.” The larger looking man joked good naturally. “No offence to you Lance but you’re a bit scrawny compared to his usual type.

The bellow of a laugh from Keith actually hurt Lance in his heart. “You must be joking. Date Lance? No fucking way.”

“Ah, my mistake.” Todd held his hands up. “Well, it was nice meeting you Lance, have a good night you two.”

“You too.” Keith grunted.

Lance rolled his eyes as Keith pulled away and began walking on his own, Lance sighed and blew a kiss at all the boys jokingly before following on afterwards.

For a minute or so, the two boys walked in complete silence as they moved away from the house, they had no real destination right now. Since Shiro hadn’t called he was just slowly walking Keith back to his flat after all, Keith could have the bed and Lance would just sleep on the sofa, it was no big deal, it shouldn’t take them too long to walk there anyway.

As if jinxing himself, Keith began messing around, leaning on and spinning round posts and bins, jumping on and off the curb, wobbling everywhere he went.

“What are you doing?” Lance groaned like a tired parent.

“I’m walking.” Keith pouted, his lips dramatically pursed out, copying Lance’s tone of voice.

Lance snorted as Keith jumped from the curb again, but this time his knees wobbled and he struggled to catch himself. “That’s some pretty shit walking.”

“I’m drunk!” Keith snapped back. “I don’t have to walk if I don’t want to.”

“Yes you do.”

“Nope.” Keith snarked back and immediately jumped in front of Lance and stood completely still. “See?”

“Keith. Come on.” Lance whined, stepping around Keith and pulling him forward but the raven haired boy stubbornly used his strength to stay in the same spot, no matter how much Lance tugged. “We need to get back.”

“Carry me.” Keith demanded.

“What?!” Lance squealed.

“Carry me. Up. Up.” Keith sounded like a child now, lifting his arms up and scrambling to try and climb up Lance’s body.

“Keith you’re too heavy!”

“Or are you too weak?”

Lance growled and glared, processing for a minute, he probably could carry Keith if he tried but wouldn't that be weird? Just carrying his drunk fuck buddy back to his house.

Keith leaned into Lance’s neck and pawed at his chest. “Please, Lance. Take me home.”

Lance sighed, he’d got himself into this mess, might as well just work to get himself out of it. But after this he needed a break from Keith Kogane, like cancel Thursday or something. Not for a long time, just enough time for Lance to actually… Not be mad at him anymore.

With another sigh, Lance suddenly scooped Keith up bridal style, one hand under his thighs, the other around his back, immediately Keith responded and tucked his face into Lance’s neck, purring softly against Lance’s skin.

After a second, Lance got his bearings and began walking again slowly as Keith helped Lance’s balance by wrapping his arms around Lance’s back to hold himself up so Lance only had to use the one hand to steady Keith.

“So hot.” Keith suddenly murmured against Lance’s neck, twisting slightly to get a better angle.

“Keith don’t move around or I’m gonna drop you.” Lance panted as he felt Keith’s lips trace along his neck.

Keith let out a long, and positively filthy, moan into the skin. “Don’t care. You taste…. So good.”

Lance was about to start an argument but before he could his phone vibrated in his back pocket. Lance slowly lowered Keith back down onto his feet but kept one arm tightly wrapped around his waist as he pulled his phone out and pressed it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Lance? It’s Shiro.” The elder man’s familiar voice gulped down the receiver. His tone thick with worry.

“Hey Shiro, thanks for getting back to me.”

“No problem. I only just saw your text so stepped out of the restaurant for a second. Allura didn’t mind.” Shiro explained. “So whats up?”

“Shiiro!” Keith suddenly called out, sticking his head into Lance’s space to try and hear the phone conversation.

“Keith?” Shiro grunted. “What on earth are you doing?”

“He’s drunk.” Lance replied, deadpan.

“I am not.”

“Oh dear.” Shiro sighed down the receiver, Lance could just picture him rubbing at his nose in disappointment. “Take him back to my place. I live in the same complex as Allura but I’m on the 7th floor, apartment 38. There’s a spare key under the doormat. Just put him on my bed, Allura and I will probably head back in about an hour or so.”

“Alright.” Lance nodded. “Sorry Shiro and thank you.”

“It’s no problem, Lance. I’ll chew Mister Merry out for it tomorrow. Before I go, so I know what I’m walking into when I get home, what kind of drunk Keith are we dealing with here?”

Lance turned down to face Keith who was still peppering kisses all over his shoulder and neck.

“How many types are there?”

“There’s angry drunk Keith, of course, sad drunk Keith, Texan drunk Keith, Korean drunk Keith, affectionate drunk Keith and… the worst one, saucy drunk Keith.” Shiro explained but Lance could almost laugh at the high level of disappointment in his voice. How many times had Shiro dealt with drunk Keith that he now had distinguishable types?

“Let’s go somewhere between affectionate and saucy drunk Keith.” Lance chuckled before Keith suddenly let out another loud, filthy moan right into his ear hole.

“I like when you say my name.” Keith growled, running his fingers down Lance’s chest. “Makes me all hot and horn-”

“The grown ups are talking here, Keith.” Lance interrupted before Keith could get out another word. Not a moment too soon clearly given the fact that Lance could hear Shiro release a loud sigh on the other end.

“Lance. I’m begging you. Please don’t let me come home to find you and Keith naked in my bed. I’ve got enough repressed memories as it is. I don’t need any more.”

Lance chuckled at Shiro’s begging tone and let out a little joke simply because he liked to tease the older male. “I can’t promise anything. Promise you’ll join in if you get back in time.”

“I mean it Lance.” Shiro begged once more. “I’ll see you later. Remember. Floor 7. Flat 38. Keys under the mat. See you in an hour or so.”

Lance chuckled a “Goodbye Mister Sexy” before placing his phone back in his pocket, when he looked back Keith was staring up at him with hurt in eyes.

“What’s up?” Lance asked.

“First Todd, now Shiro. You were flirting with my brother?”

“What?” Lance couldn’t help but laugh at Keith’s ridiculousness. “Of course not, I was just teasing him because he’s so easy to make uncomfortable.”

Keith nodded his head but he didn’t look convinced. Lance sighed, he presumed this was the only kind of jealousy he could get from Keith so he wanted to use it for what it was. Lance leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to Keith’s lips before pulling back. Keith chased after his lips but Lance was quick and before he could he scooped Keith back up into his arms.

Lance lifted Keith back up into his arms and was surprised as Keith immediately cuddled into him, sticking his face right into the crook of Lance’s neck and began mumbling gibberish against his skin. Lance held him tightly to remove some of the risk of Keith falling, he really didn’t want to be dealing with an _injured_ drunk Keith right now.

The two began the short walk back to Shiro’s place, Lance was thanking the gods for the relatively short distance. Sure, Lance was a considerably strong guy majority of the times, but Keith was no feather and carrying him like that was taking it out of Lance rapidly.

A few minutes passed of silence and Lance was pretty much lost for words. What could he bring up with drunk Keith that wouldn’t end with some sort of awkwardness later.

“ _Drunk people have loose lips_.”

Hunk’s words returned to him and Lance smirked as he conjured up something that he could asked. Another minute or so passed before Lance finally had an idea.

“What are you thinking about?” Lance asked as the two began to near Shiro’s apartment complex. Sure the question was nothing groundbreaking but it worked as good foundation for Lance to build off with further questions.

“You don’t wanna know.” Keith muttered back.

Lance frowned at him in confusion. “Why not?”

“You’ll get mad.”

“Why would I get mad?” Lance furrowed his eyebrows, getting more confused. “I never get mad.”

“You got mad at me earlier. I know you were mad, I could tell by your face.”

Lance couldn’t see Keith’s face when it was all buried up into his neck like that which was probably a good thing, Lance didn’t want to see the expression Keith was showing right now.

“I told that guy I’d fuck him and then I just left. I feel kinda bad.” Keith mumbled. “Plus I really needed to fuck someone tonight.”

“I'm sure you've slept with dozens of guys, Keith.” Lance rolled his eyes, trying not to do what Keith said he was going to just out of pure stubbornness even though he did want to be mad. Plus he was trying to ignore what frat guy had said to him earlier. Why would Keith talk to him about this? Didn’t he understand Lance’s feelings at all or was it on purpose? “One guy on one night isn't going to matter. Give your ass a break for once.”

“My ass?” Keith all but giggled in Lance's ear. “I haven't bottomed in a long time… Not since you in fact.”

“Oh really? Worried you wouldn't find someone who could match up to my skills?” Lance joked to try and lighten the mood but Keith stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

“You were good at it.” Keith seemed to mutter reluctantly after a minute or two just as the pair reached the front entrance and made their way inside. Lance headed straight towards the lift still cradling Keith bridal style in his arms. “But I wasn’t born to be a bottom.”

“Perhaps.” Lance chuckled as he stretched out one finger of a hand holding Keith and pressed the 7 on the lift. “But you were good at it.”

“It’s easy to be a bottom.” Keith grumbled.

“No. I make it look easy.” Lance laughed. “It’s actually very difficult.”

“Sure, Lance.”

“I’ll have to prove it to you some time.”

Keith snorted in response just as the lift reached their stop and Lance led Keith towards the direction of the flats. When Lance reached flat 38 he slowly lowered Keith down to his feet much to his protests and whines.

Keith made grabby hands and tried to pull himself back up onto Lance but Lance used one hand to keep him steady on the floor while the other searched desperately for the front door key. After finding it, Lance stood up straight once more and opened the door quickly before practically booting the drunk Keith through the door.

Keith stumbled clumsily over the threshold and it took a lot for Lance not to point and laugh at the dude, it made it easier when Keith was once again at him, clawing at him and pulling off his jacket with drunk hands.

“You have to be polite.” Keith moaned again, pressing kisses to the bare skin that was left behind after taking Lance’s jacket off. “You have to take off your coat and shoes before you enter.”

“Okay, Keith.” Lance laughed, obeying his wishes nonetheless, leaving his jacket and shoes at the door before picking Keith up once more into his arms. “Which way is Shiro’s room?”

Keith groaned as he lifted a hand to point which way while Lance followed with a wide smile on his face. The bedroom came off the living room which was a good thing since Shiro had probably lost his bed for the night and would probably have to stretch across the couch. Close enough to listen out for Keith at least.

They entered the room and Lance was kinda surprised at how minimal the entire place was, there was no colour on the walls or in the furniture, everything was just white, black or some shade of grey giving off a very boring room. Plus the entire room looked untouched, there were barely any personal effects loose bar a couple cans of deodorant on the set of black drawers in the corner of the room.

Lance approached the bed via the side and smiled at Keith. “I’m going to put you down now.”

Keith groaned in reluctance but didn’t put up much of a fight as Lance slowly lowered him onto his back, his head falling inside the thick pillows.

Keith kept a tight hold of Lance’s collar to prevent his escape before suddenly jerking him down in order to stretch his arms around him better. Lance tried to keep both feet firmly on the floor as best as he could but at this angle he could feel his back protesting heavily.

“Lance…” Keith whispered, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck before he could pull away. Pressing more kisses into any part of Lance he could reach. “... Lance… I want you to fuck me.”

“Keith!” Lance gawped in shock, almost tripping up on the edge of the bed and crushing his entire weight on top of Keith.

“Please…” Keith moaned, pulling Lance even closer until their lips brushed together. Lance wrinkled his nose at the thick smell of alcohol. “I need you. I want you inside me, please.”

“Seriously…” Lance gulped and cursed at the gods above, trying his best to untangle Keith’s arms from around his neck but Lance knew that when Keith had his hands on something he didn’t usually let it go until he got what he wanted.

Lance had slept with him enough times to know that.

“Please, Lance.” Keith whispered again but this time he immediately followed his words by sticking his face in the crook of Lance’s neck and layering him in thick, sloppy kisses. “Please.”

“Keith.” Lance couldn’t help the little moan that escaped his lips. “You’re very drunk.”

“Don’t care.” Keith grumbled back instantly. “I want you now. Forgot how good it feels to have you inside me. You always did it so good.”

“Keith… Come on.” Lance sighed, reaching behind to disconnect Keith’s vice grip around his neck. Thankfully due to Keith’s high level of intoxication, Lance actually managed to succeed and Keith fell back down onto the bed with a _thump_.

“Just do it, Lance.” Keith growled, once again reaching up to grab Lance by the neck.

“No, Keith.” Lance jumped back out of Keith’s reach and stood at the end of the bed looking over Keith who looked nothing short of a mess.

“Come on.” Keith whined, starting to writhe in the sheets. Lance watched as Keith pulled his shirt up until it was bunched around his armpits, his stomach and chest on display.

Lance turned his back to try and control his heart which was beating irregularly in his chest. There was no way he could do this right? He shouldn’t, it’s not right. Keith is unbelievably drunk and he doesn’t want to feel like he’s taking advantage of that.

“Lance, look at me.” Keith whispered.

Lance slowly turned around to see Keith slowly rolling over onto his stomach, pushing himself onto his elbows so his arse was lifted high into the air. Lance’s breath caught in his throat as Keith tried to look back at him over his shoulder, gently swaying his arse from side to side in an enticing fashion.

“Please, Lance.” Keith panted, looking like he was getting a bit hot under the collar. “I want you to make me feel good. I want your thick cock throbbing inside me until I’m a cumming mess underneath you. I want you to cum inside me. Please.”

“That’s so corny.” Lance tried to joke, letting out a throaty laugh, anything to try and cool down this situation. “You sound like a pornstar. In fact, you’ve used that damn line before.”

“I'll be whatever you want me to be. As long as you come over here and pound me till daylight.”

“Fuck Keith.” Lance could feel his resolve slipping but he was determined not to give in now. He wasn’t some horny teenage boy any more, he could resist this. “What l want is you to be safe and asleep so you can sober up.”

“For fuck sake, Lance.” Keith huffed but lowered his body back onto his front so he laid flat out across the sheets. “If you're not going to fuck me you're no good to me. You might as well leave.”

Lance sighed as he took a step towards the door. “Okay. Give me two minutes and then I’ll go.”

“I knew I shouldn't have called you.” Keith suddenly called out bitterly. “That guy at the party had no problem, he was practically begging me to fuck him. I should've stayed with him.”

Hook. Line. Sinker.

“Oh really?” Lance turned back with a smirk, to Keith he would've looked joking but Lance could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “You think that guy could’ve satisfied you?”

“More than you can.” Keith barked again, clawing at his clothes like they were physically scolding him. 

“No one can fuck you like I can, you admitted that yourself.” Lance growled, almost possessively, across the room as Keith was writhing in the sheets at his words. "What's the truth, Keith? Do you want me or some random guy you met at a party?"

Keith suddenly sank into the sheets, twisting onto his back once more as Lance crossed the room and practically fell on top of him on the bed.

"Please Lance."

"Say it." Lance ran a finger from Keith's forehead down to his chin, lifting his neck till his eyes met Lance's. "Me or someone else?"

Keith's eyes fluttered closed and he let out a soft breath that was followed by a word, so soft that Lance barely caught up.

"You're going to have to speak up, Keith."

"You." Keith's eyes shot open as he ran his hands around Lance's body, pinning him down so Lance couldn't get away, not that Lance wanted to. His resolve had been slipping all night, a beautiful man like Keith begging him to give him pleasure, to have him in everyone Lance had been hoping to ever since they started speaking once more. 

"Me." Lance echoed softly before finally pressing a deep kiss against Keith's lips, a kiss that very quickly turned heated as Keith's fingers began to wander, going down Lance's hips to his waist and sneaking themselves underneath his shirt, scratching along his back so deep that Lance wouldn't be surprised if the smaller male had broken the skin. The room was filled with soft pants from Lance and heavy moans from the boy beneath him. 

Lance rested one of his legs between Keith's thighs and allowed Keith to grind against it, rutting against the fabric as Lance layered kiss after kiss on Keith's neck. He started suckling and slurping, satisfied with the large purple bruises that were beginning to break through.

Keith’s moans were a lot more whiny than usual but they were like music to Lance’s gay ears. Lance reached beneath Keith’s body and took two handfuls of his ass, awkwardly lifting him slightly to let him grind at a much better angle.

“You like that?” Lance purred, biting gently on Keith’s ear. “You like rutting against me like some dog? Some animal?”

“Yes! Oh god, I’m so close, Lance.”

“We only just got started. Are you giving up on me already?”

“Fuck Lance, I want to cum already.” Keith groaned after only a few more seconds. “Let me cum. Please.”

Lance let Keith rut for a few seconds more before entirely removing himself from the bed mere seconds before Keith would've came. Lance had been with Keith enough times to know when he was about to cum. He had been with Keith enough times to know what he liked and what he didn't like.

Vice versa too.

Keith knew what Lance liked and didn't and Lance didn't like being made a fool of.

“Lance.” Keith called out. “Get back here.”

Lance turned to the pale boy, a sweaty mess in the middle of the bed, clutching and clawing at the sheets with one hand and the other desperately rubbing at himself through his jeans.

“Bet that guy couldn't do that.” Lance mumbled before completely removing himself from the room without even another glance back at Keith. “Get some sleep, Keith.”

Lance closed the door behind him but not before he heard the nasty, animalistic growl from the other side yelling. “How the fuck am I supposed to sleep now?”

Lance smirked as he made his way into Shiro’s kitchen and rooted for a few supplies. He grabbed a tall glass of water, some aspirin, and a spare bucket from under the sink before slinking back to Keith’s room and leaving them outside the door for a moment. He’d tell Shiro that it was there when he got back and have Shiro deliver the goods into the room itself since Lance didn’t think he could handle one more second with Keith acting like… that.

So, Lance, like a good boy, sat down by the door to Shiro’s room, listening to Keith’s uneven breathing and frequent shifting around while he unconsciously scrolled through one of his social medias on his phone.

He had expected to be sat for a lot longer but nevertheless half an hour later a key twisted in the lock and two sets of footsteps entered the home.

“Hey guys.” Lance smiled back sleepily, leaning his head against the wall.

“How is he?” Allura was the first inside, obviously followed shortly by Shiro who was holding her hand to follow her in. “Is he asleep?”

“Not since I last checked on him. I decided Keith needed a bit of time out so I’ve been out here since we got here.”

Shiro smiled at him with a look of what seemed like pity. “Thanks for what you did tonight, Lance, I doubt Keith will ever thank you for it because… Well, he’s Keith, but I’m thanking you.”

“It’s no problem.” Lance smiled, pushing himself up to his feet. “Friends look out for each other.”

The happy couple smiled at him sleepily just before Lance let out a large yawn, stretching his arms up till the ceiling till he heard the satisfying sound of his back cracking.

“Since it’s late, I’ll drive you back quickly if you want.” Allura smiled Lance’s way. “I know you have early classes tomorrow.”

“Are you sure? It’s very late and you two probably want to get some sleep.”

“It’s fine.” Allura smiled before placing a quick peck on Shiro’s cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Come on, Lance, let’s go.”

Lance nodded in thanks as he followed Allura back out the front door grabbing his shoes and jacket in his hand as he went, just before closing the door Shiro rested a hand on Lance’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze in thanks before releasing him.

Lance nodded his head in understanding before casting back one last look at Shiro’s bedroom door. He nodded his head again for good measure and then left, following Allura down to her car that was parked outside.

On the journey home, Lance mentally scolded himself for some of his actions tonight. Being away from the situation really makes you think that it's not a good idea to let your current fling drunkenly rut against your thigh and then abandon him before he gets the chance to finish.

Lance hid his smirk under his hands as Allura continued to drive, Lance’s mind was only capable of drifting back to Keith in these moments and Lance finally let himself accept the honest truth.

Keith was always going to be Lance’s biggest hassle, no matter what relationship they had, Lance just had to come to accept that.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so bad at remembering to post! I literally have all the way up to Chapter Sixteen already finished, I'm just terrible at managing my time and then I go through a busy couple of weeks and shove this on the back burner. To apologise I will post Chapter 11 in the next couple of days.
> 
> But first chapter ten, probably one of my least favourite chapters to write. Trying to hint at some of the more deeper levels of the story without going into too much detail and giving the entire plot away is not my strong suit. But I hope you enjoy the chapter and can start making some guesses about how things in this chapter have been involved in other aspects of Lance's journey, and the impact they could have in future chapters.

A few weeks passed, a couple of important deadlines came and went, multiple paychecks came in and were immediately thrown away again as always, and a few more nights spent with Keith. After that night where Lance had to care for a drunk Keith, both had unconsciously decided to never mention it again and just continue as if nothing had ever happened.

That might have been easy enough for Keith, but Lance is honest enough with himself to know that the first time he saw Keith after what he is now titling “the incident” was the most tense he’d felt in a long while. He couldn’t even look Keith in the eye for longer than a second without feeling guilty and looking away.

Yes. Lance felt guilty.

He almost took advantage of a drunk Keith, hell, some would say he actually did take advantage. He knew that he’d let his temper get the better of him and that’s something Lance rarely does. Lance couldn’t even tell his best friend about the incident because knowing Hunk, he’d say something along the lines of “is that not proof enough that you two shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing? You’re acting like someone else, Lance, my darling best friend who is both beautiful and smart in every single way and life would be so much easier if we were in love with each other.”

Okay, maybe Lance added that last bit to make himself feel better, but that still sounds like something Hunk would say if the situation called for it. 

“Lance. Is my coffee ready yet?” An annoyed sounding hiss vibrated against Lance’s eardrums. “I’ve been stood here like a freak while you’ve just been stood staring at that coffee filter for nearly five minutes.”

Lance turned around with a look of guilt on his face as he faced his two best friends who he’d completely forgotten were here to visit him at work. Getting friendly visits weren’t exactly a rarity but he was being extremely rude just zoning off into space like that, especially when they’d already ordered and paid for their drinks and were waiting somewhat patiently.

“Sorry, Pidge.” Lance gulped, immediately picking up the pace and finishing Pidge’s gross double shot espresso and Hunk’s large caramel macchiato with extra foam and extra syrup. 

“What’s up, old man?” Pidge rolled their eyes. “You’re acting kinda weird today.”

“Oh? Umm…” Lance rubbed at his neck awkwardly as he turned his back to them so they wouldn’t see his expression. “It’s probably just cause I’m working on a Tuesday. Haven’t done a Tuesday in a few months. But it’s a short shift so I’ll go home and sleep.”

Which was true, to be fair, Lance never worked Tuesday other than during his time off from college when he had the spare time simply because his usual college timetable had him scheduled in lectures during the afternoon which made him unable to make it on any other usual Tuesday.

“I wish you didn’t have to skip classes for this.” Hunk mumbled under his breath just as Lance finished the two drinks and turned back, holding the two cups in his hands. “College is more important than work.”

“I owed Rolo a favour.” Lance waved his hand to dismiss Hunk’s worry. “Not always a position one wants to be in. So if pulling a quick four hour shift on a Tuesday afternoon makes us square then I’m more than willing to do it. Plus it’s quiet at this time which I like.”

Again, also true, Lance wasn’t some county down liar with bad hair and a big nose. Rolo was a good boss, he cared for his staff, paid them well, gave them suitable holiday hours, even took their own matters into consideration when creating the monthly rotas. But he was a firm believer in giving back what you receive. A few weeks back, Lance had asked to cut his usual full 7am to 5pm Sunday shift down to 7am to 1pm, just for that day, so that he was able to get home and work on an assignment that he had been having particular trouble with. Thankfully Rolo made it work and was able to get another staff member to cover, but that also meant Lance owed Rolo four hours of his time.

Sure, Lance could have asked Shiro or god forbid even Keith for a little guidance, or at least that was Hunk’s very strong opinion at the time but that was pretty much just after that whole ‘picking drunk Keith up at a party and rutting against each other in Shiro’s bed’ fiasco and Lance was not in the mood to be getting chummy with Clique Kogane so soon.

Also, side note that Lance hadn’t realised at the damn time, what the fuck was Keith doing with all the frat guys? How does the high school emo kid who still hadn’t cut his hair get in with the “boys who play baseball/American football and like to go on dates with cheerleaders?” It was madness. Keith, considered cool, like he wasn’t actually a anxious mess who couldn’t understand social cues if they were written down on the back of his eyelids.

Back to the present, Lance, come back. Abandoning your friends to think of what could possibly be the best looking guy on this planet, if he had a haircut, is great and all but it is extremely rude.

“I bet when you’re not here, it’s even more quiet.” Pidge flashed a shit-eating grin Lance’s way before snatching and downing their entire espresso in one gulp. “Perfect amount of sustenance from that. Thanks Lance.”

Scratch that. Hunk is great but fuck you, Pidge.

“No problem.” Lance grunted back, still slightly put out by Pidge’s earlier comment. “I may not be good at much, but coffee is fairly straightforward.”

“You’re good at a lot of things.” Hunk reprimanded as he gratefully took his own coffee from Lance’s waiting hand.

Pidge snorted as they placed their empty cup back into Lance’s hand. “Yeah, like being annoying, messing up simple math, falling over your own feet, things like that really.”

Lance pouted as he dropped Pidge’s empty cup into the bin beside him before looking up and sneering at them. “Go crawl back underneath your rock, cockroach.”

Pidge and Lance went back and forth at each other for another few minutes before the door of the cafe opened and a fresh customer walked in, prompting the non-employed pair to start getting moving. Lance was about to turn and serve the next customer when Hunk reached over and grabbed Lance’s arm over the counter, pulling him forward to whisper when Pidge was absolutely out of earshot. 

“I just wanted to say, I heard about your dad.” Hunk mumbled. “Just know that I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

Lance pulled back in surprise, electing to ignore the new customer to focus on his best friend. “Wait, what? What do you mean?”

“My mom told me he was in the hospital the other day. She was on night duties the other day and saw his name on the board so went to visit him.” Hunk whispered uncomfortably, playing with the rim of his coffee cup awkwardly. “Then she told me earlier. I figured because I didn’t see you this morning that you’d gone out to be alone or something.”

“No… There was no food for lunch so I ran to the shops before work. I had no idea.” Lance zoned out while looking at the counter, hanging his head in shame.

God, he’d been so preoccupied with his own little teenage melodrama series that he hadn’t even thought much about his family recently, and to think that his dad was in hospital again and he had to find out from Hunk that's- that’s unacceptable.

“Oh gods, I’m so sorry dude,” Hunk whimpered, reaching over and rubbing a hand at Lance’s shoulder. “I really thought you knew.”

“No.” Lance sighed, before looking back up and signalling for Hunk to move on. “I’ve got to get back to work, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hunk clearly wanted to stay, but this was still Lance’s job and he could see the next customer twitching with anticipation for their turn, he didn’t want to be rude any longer. So he waved a final goodbye to his friends and continued on with his job, serving, cleaning, chatting, all while pretending that he wasn’t imaging the worst case scenarios of his life back home.

Papa was back in the hospital, did that mean he was in serious trouble? Did Lance have to get the next coach home? Or was it just a check-up? Hunk didn’t know all that much about the family problems, he was only aware that problems existed and that was only because of his Mom working at the hospital and occasionally bumping into the McClain family back when Lance was in high school. Lance never explained to Hunk about the details and, like the amazing friend he was, Hunk never expected or demanded it.

Before Lance knew it, another hour passed and his coworker came in to replace him on the till, Lance stayed back for a while to clean the tables inside and outside the cafe and chatting to a few customers who were regular.

It was all very distracting for Lance, a good distraction. Lance was a keen extrovert who enjoyed the company of others, even strangers, as they gave him energy and seemed to bring his personality from an 11 to a 13. It was fun to discuss politics with old Mrs G who lived down the road with her husband who was recently diagnosed with early set Dementia, or Kelsie, the young, new mum who often brought her six-month-old son in here when he wouldn’t go down for his nap.

It was a pleasant distraction from what was really on his mind, but he had to get back to reality at some point and unfortunately that had to be then.

Lance’s shift ended not too long after that and he quickly began the short walk back to the apartment where he knew he’d be coming back to an empty house. Hunk was on the late finish tonight so Lance would likely be in bed when he got back. That gave him the time to call up his mother and have a full conversation about everything that’s going on. 

When he reached the apartment, Lance would not lie, he knew what he was doing the second he started doing it, he was procrastinating. He left his bag in the hallway and pretty much immediately jumped in the shower, scrubbing every inch of himself, shaving himself down from every angle, toning, cleansing, moisturising, leaving his favourite hair mask on for three times longer than the directions recommended all the while softly singing some Cuban lullaby he remembered from his childhood.

After showering, Lance dried himself off, blow dried his hair, got dressed, changed his mind and got changed into something else, tidied his room, rearranged his desk, properly put away his recent pile of washing. Then he headed into the kitchen, fixed himself up a cup of hot chocolate, serving himself up a sandwich and treating himself to all the fillings. He knew that the tomatoes were supposed to be used in Hunk’s stew tomorrow but all he needed was the one.

Lance slowly got to work at the sandwich prep, making sure each slice of tomato was the same size as the next, that the butter was spread evenly and right to the crusts of both slices of bread. Gently and carefully layered ham, cheese, mayonnaise, and finally tomatoes before taking in the true beauty of his handiwork. Snapped a picture.

He waited a full ten minutes after finishing before taking his first bite, which was a feat in itself, Lance was a fast eater, he’d grown up in a family of six and then when he reached sixteen, that number jumped to eight, he knew a little thing about eating what you had, while you still had it.

He paused. Sandwich down. Sighed.

He really had to call his family. 

Lance left the half eaten sandwich in the kitchen before walking to grab his phone from his bag in the hallway and coming back to the living room, suddenly feeling very sick. Maybe eating hadn’t been the best idea as the gurgles in his stomach were making him feel like he’d rather be doing anything else right now than what he was about to do. But there was no more excuses worthy, he’d put this off as long as he could and enough was enough.

Lance without even a second thought pulled his joggers down from his legs and left them a pile on the floor beside him, no excuses, no ‘my trousers were too tight, I couldn’t control the nausea,’ no ‘I’m feeling icky, sticky and a little bit sicky’ not now. 

He perched down on the couch, lifting his legs to spread across before dialing the number saved in his contact list that he knew off by heart anyway.

A tick. Two ticks. Three passed by and for a moment Lance thought he’d made a mistake, the owner of this phone always picked up, they never missed a call. Perhaps he had saved the number wrong, even if he had dialed it successfully a hundred other times. Perhaps he was calling at a terrible time, y’know, time zones are a thing. Or maybe even-

Click.

“ _ Hola _ ?”

Lance whimpered down the receiver, taken off guard but… Relieved, nevertheless. “Hey Mama.”

“ _ Mijo _ ! It’s good to hear your voice.” Lance’s mother’s sweet like peach voice sang back down into Lance’s ear. “How have you been?”

“Fine, mama. Everything is good down here. How’s everything back at home?”

“Oh  _ Mijo.  _ You know me, I never stop looking after you kids.” His mother chuckled so sweetly down the receiver. If Lance didn’t already know something had happened, he probably wouldn’t have been able to pick up in his mother’s voice that there was something wrong. It was a good thing he did.

“What about Pa?”

“P-papa is fine. Never helps out with dinner or cleaning, leaves it all to your poor mother as always.” 

The slip was faint but Lance caught it, there wasn’t much point beating out around the bush. If Lance wasn’t outright, his mother would never say it of her own accord.

“Mama, I heard about Pa.”

The silent went silent for a second, save for a surprised intake of air from his mother down the other end. “I see.”

Lance paused for a second before he released the question he’d been dreading. “Do you need me to come home?”

“What? Of course not.” The light quickly returned to his mother’s voice. “No,  _ Mijo _ , we are doing just fine. Your father shouldn’t be in the hospital for much longer, in fact the doctor’s have assured me he’ll definitely be home by Friday. I’m sure I can keep the house from burning until then, I have been a practicing mother since before you were born, y’know.”

“I know, Mama… I’m just worried is all.”

“Well stop.” His mother’s voice was kind but final, no room for Lance to provide any alternative scenarios in this case. “Your father and I had been preparing for this for a while, we both knew it was only a matter of time before he had another low spell. We, as a family, should consider ourselves lucky that your father had been on a high spell for so long.”

“What about work?” Lance gulped, even though the reality was he really didn’t want to know the answer. “What will the pair of you do for money?”

“Like I said,  _ Mijo _ , your father and I have been preparing for this since he went back to work after the end of that last low spell, we don’t have much saved but we do have enough to cover certain expenses so that your father can just focus on himself and not have to stress about finance and-”

“I’d like to start sending some more money back home again.” Lance interrupted, normally it was seen as almost a crime against the gods to interrupt Mama but now was as good a time as any.

Lance had always sent dribs and drabs of petty cash home on a semi-regular basis. Sending his Mama fifty dollars here and there towards a monthly food shop, or sending his brothers twenty if they wanted to go out with their friends but didn’t want to ask the ‘rents for anything. But if the situation was going to end up as bad as was when Lance was in high school, well, he felt he had a responsibility and an obligation to support and help his family in any way he could.

“ _ Lance _ -”

“I want to.” Lance reaffirmed, he could tell by her tone that she wanted to argue, that she wanted to say no, but they both knew that money was tight when the pair of them were working. Now that Father was out of the job, his mother had no choice, regardless what her pride thought about, but to accept support where she could.

“You are at college, my boy, I would not want you to cause yourself stress.”

“I’ll give what I can afford, nothing more, nothing less.” Lance confirmed. “I won’t give as much where I struggle to meet ends meet, but every other penny to my name is yours, Mama. I love you all so much, it’s the least I can do.”

“You’re a good boy,  _ Mijo,  _ a good example to your younger siblings. A good brother, and an amazing son. Come home soon, my boy, we all miss you terribly here.”

“Alright, Mama. Give everyone my love and give the twins a squeeze from me. I’ll see you during the holidays. Good night.”

“ _ Que tengas dulces sueños, nene. _ ”

“ _ Hasta Luego, Mama.” _

Lance quickly exited the phone and put the phone down on the couch beside him. He couldn’t believe this was happening again, it hadn’t fully sank it yet and Lance was dreading the moment that it did. He didn’t want to accept the fact that this was his life now, that for the next however many years it ends up being that Lance will have to sit by the phone nervously awaiting the news of his father’s next stage.

But that was the worse thing about today, because Lance had not been waiting by the phone, he hadn’t checked in with his family in weeks. Other than the occasionally stupid video sent by his sixteen year old brother, and the occasional emoji sent by his thirteen year old brother, it had been radio silence between Lance and the remainder of the family. Lance had been so caught up in his teenage melodrama of a life, worrying about stupid shit like whether or not Keith would forgive him for allowing drunk Keith to act the fool with him, when his own family was falling apart back home.

What about Marie? The god’s only knew how she must have been coping with this. She’d basically been glued to their father’s side since Lance was in high school, barely leaving him for even a moment out of fear she’d miss the big thing would mean the difference between their father’s recovery and his downfall.

He hadn’t even really asked anything personal on the phone, he’d just offered them money. Clever idea, McClain, just throw money at a problem until it’s gone, that’ll solve everything. It could be argued that Lance didn’t ask because he didn’t want to know, or rather couldn’t know, and if you argued that you’d be right. High school had been hard enough, but at least he was there, at least he could walk up the stairs and knock on his father's ex-study-now-personal-medical-centre and talk to him whenever he wanted.

Not so easy when you live in the next state over.

Lance didn’t know what to do. Even after speaking with his mother, he still didn’t have any piece of mind. So, things were like how they were in high school, that was now father’s condition, a similar state, he wouldn’t be able to go to work, Mama would have to pick up extra hours of a night time while also providing care for the kids through the daylight hours. Marie would probably move back home for a bit, stay in her old room and help with the day to day care of Father just to reduce some of the load on Mama. But from here, Lance couldn’t do anything and it was obvious that now was the time they really needed him.

Maybe he could-

_ No, Lance, that’s stupid! _

Well, is it really stupid? It would allow him to go home, find a job and help out for a few months and then he could come back in a year or two.

He could drop out of college.

Not forever but could just take some time off and get home, help out, then as soon as Papa’s better he could come back and finish off his Major. No big deal, no harm, no foul.

Just as Lance was about to start researching the logistics and practicality of his idea, he was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Great, the very last thing that Lance needed right now was some distraction, for the first time today Lance didn’t want want to distract himself from making his next move, this was too important.

“Hang on a minute.” Lance sighed, grabbing his joggers from the floor and quickly pulling them up his long tan legs. 

As Lance quickly made his way to the front door, he caught sight of himself in the mirror by the living room door.

“Oh god.” Was his immediate response. He hadn’t realised how bad the effects of his lazy/self-pity day had been on his skin already, his eyes were puffy and red and his lips had blown up into a thick pout. His hair was a mess, sticking out which way and the other and his clothes looked like they’d gone through a professional creasing machine of some sort.

“Whoever you are, I hope you’re ready for my draft halloween costume for next year.” Lance grumbled as he began undoing the latches on the front door. “It’s truly terrifying.”

The final latch slid off and Lance wasted no time pulling the door open to reveal the str-

“Oh.”

Lance shouldn’t really have been surprised, it was Tuesday after all and they’d made their arrangement, but he still hadn’t expected to see Keith Kogane stood at his front door. Hands deep in the pockets of his black jeans and a thick red coat with the hood up, almost covering his face from Lance’s view.

The raven haired boy smiled mischievously at Lance’s surprised expression. “Hey, Lance. Ready to get started?”


	11. Chapter Eleven

Lance stood wide eyed at his front door staring out as if he'd seen a ghost. After a minute of processing  _ Oh my golly why is Keith Kogane stood at my door. Oh right it's Tuesday. Shit I forgot to call him! Be cool! Everything's fine. _

“Oh.” Lance leaned lazily on the front door to appear nonchalant and cool, but also to hint to Keith that he didn't intend on letting him in. “Keith, it’s you.”

“Who did you think it was going to be?” Keith raised a perfectly sculpted dark eyebrow, which Lance almost religiously followed, in confusion.

“I dunno.” Lance shrugged. Being cool and normal was harder than it looked. How did Keith do it nearly 24/7?

“So…” Keith shuffled on the balls of his feet suddenly uncharacteristically nervous. “Are you going to let me in?”

“I’m not really feeling it tonight, Keith, sorry I didn’t call but I’m just too tired and honestly I had forgot. I’ll see you next time.” Lance went to walk back inside and close the door but was surprised when Keith jolted forward and pushed the door back with his hand to prevent it from closing. 

“Hang on a second. You’re not even letting me in?”

Lance gulped. “No?”

“Why not?”

“Because I said so.” Lance looked away, he just couldn't look Keith in the eye, if he did his resolve could slip and he really wasn't in the mood for a quickie right now. If anything Lance needed long cuddles and gentle kisses, which was not on the table from Keith.

“Whatever.” Keith shrugged pushing the door again and stepping inside, shoving up against Lance's chest when Lance made no plan to move.  “Move out the way so I can get my coat and shoes off.”

“Keith. I just said no.” Lance meant to sound firm but it came out more whiney and pathetic.

Lance was pathetic.

“I’ve got nothing better to do, tonight. You might as well let me stay, Lance.” Keith rolled his eyes in irritation, pushing forward again but holding Lance's waist to keep the taller boy from slipping backwards.

“Oh well would you look at that? You’ve convinced me.” Lance replied deadpan, shoving back just as hard. “I’m serious, Keith. Not tonight. I’m not feeling in the mood.”

“Come on. I journeyed all the way here.” Keith groaned, throwing his head back dramatically. “Fine. The least you can do is make me a coffee before I head back.”

“What purpose would that serve?” Lance growled. “I'm not in the mood Keith for a quickie then home time. I'm sorry I forgot to call but that doesn't change it.”

“Then we won't have sex!” Keith growled back, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Just make me a coffee because it's fucking cold and then I will go straight home.”

Lance rolled his eyes but eventually, and reluctantly, gave in and moved out of the way of the front door so Keith could walk in fully. Keith quickly stripped himself of his jacket and shoes and stared at Lance expectantly. Lance sighed once more before softly closing the door behind him and the pair crossed into the living room then into the kitchen where Lance quickly flicked on the kettle. Hoping to get this awkwardness out of the way as soon as possible.

He wasn't in the mood as it was and having Keith here was just going to sour his mood even further.

They waited in silence as the kettle began to boil and Lance grabbed two mugs from the cupboard. Both with very intricate paintworks. One of which was multicoloured with the words “nobody knows I'm gay” printed in big large font on the side while the other was a printed picture of a man flexing his muscles with the words “Someone call the vet because these swans are sick.” 

“Classy.” Keith mumbled and Lance looked over to him in surprise. “I'll take the swans one.”

“That's the one you were getting anyway, Romeo. Everyone knows you're gay.”

“Can't argue with that.” Keith shrugged. “What coffee do you have?”

“... The generic store bought kind.” Lance muttered, leaning over into another cupboard and pulling out a small tin filled with coffee granules. Coffee was more Hunks thing, it was rare that Lance made himself a coffee but he convinced himself that now, with Keith, was as good a time as any. “I don't bring work home.”

There was probably some law that Lance, not a coffee drinker, shouldn't be working in a fancy coffee shop on a regular basis but Lance was very good at pretending he was a fan.

“Black. No sugar.” 

“Yeah I know.” Lance's response was immediate and not well thought out. Should he really be hinting that he remembers how Keith takes his coffee from when they were dating?  Or was Lance just overthinking because he was anxious?

Keith himself seemed unfazed by the response so Lance just got to work on finishing up the two brews. Giving himself two sugars and a lot of milk, before adding the hot water and stirring the liquids into a new oblivion.

Keith reached forward, stretching around Lance as best as he could, but their shoulders roughly grazed against one another causing Lance to shiver. He grabbed his cup and pulled back immediately just as Lance grabbed his own and shuffled the opposite direction retreating from the touch.

“Let's sit down.” Keith declared turning on his heel and heading into the living room.

Lance was quick to follow and watched as Keith walked over to the couch and daintily sat down. Inviting Lance to sit beside him, which he did, but extremely apprehensively. 

“So you chose Astrology as your major?” Keith mumbled immediately. “I thought you said you weren't going to pick it in the end.”

Lance blinked in surprise, holding the cup of coffee tightly in his hand. He hadn't expected anything more than small talk but he guessed Keith wanted to know what happened to the fuck up he dumped two years ago. “I wasn't going to. I really thought I wanted to go into psychology or something but… Stuff kinda got in the way so I just stuck with my original plan.”

“What kinda stuff?”

“Y’know.” Lance gulped awkwardly. “Life stuff.”

“How specific.” Keith rolled his eyes. 

Lance shifted his gaze to avoid the daggers Keith was shooting. “Just family. They didn't feel comfortable with me just changing my mind all of a sudden. Their words not mine.”

“Oh.” Keith's stare softened. 

“What about you?”

“Well…” Keith shrugged. “For me there was never an argument. I had known that Astronomy was the way for me since I was young and when I found out Shiro was on the course it was like a done deal for me.”

“Yeah. Shiro’s great.”

“He sure is.” Keith mumbled before taking a long sip of his own drink. “I can't even really remember a time when he wasn't in my life. I know I've only known him since I was like… 14? It's just like my life didn't really start until he was in it. It's weird.”

“It's not weird.” Lance sighed, a soft smile gracing his cheeks. “He's your family. Family is… everything.”

“Maybe.” Keith mumbled. “What about your family? Has your mum had any more kids since we were in high school?”

Lance felt his body tense but tried to mask it by quickly responding. “No. I think the twins were enough of a shock. Besides they've got 6 kids now, 4 still living at home, and to be honest my sister and I never stay away for long. That's more than enough for her.”

Keith smiles softly. “That's a good point. If she knew how annoying you'd turn out to be she probably would have stopped with just Marie.”

“Marie is a lot more annoying than I am.” Lance snorted, surprised by how naturally the two had fallen into conversation. “She goes home more often than I do and she's supposed to be the working adult. As the eldest she should have cleared off completely by now.” 

“You don't mean that.” Keith chuckled.

“No I suppose not. But still… I'm not the worst one of the bunch.” Lance sighed. “I'm surprised you still remember her name. I swear you only met her once.”

“Three times.” Keith corrected. “Once at the Christmas dinner, then New year, and then once more soon after when she came and collected you from the movie theatre that one time.”

“Oh yeah.” Lance scratched at his head kind of embarrassed. He forgot about Christmas and the cinema since he'd pretty much wiped those two occasions from his mind not long after they happened. Not because of Keith but… “Whoops.”

“Whoops.” Keith echoed with a chuckle. “Your memory is still as awful as it was back then.”

“Well…” Lance smirked. “When you've just got so much packed into one brain, occasionally stuff slips out.”

Keith rolled his eyes but his facial expression was gentle. “Sure thing, Lance.”

“I swear. There's only so much storage in my little hat stand, and that's only enough room for like half of my Major and a couple of dank memes.” Lance snorted, he wasn't even using dank memes ironically. 

“Half your Major? That's a bit of an overexaggeration right?”

“Ouch.” Lance gasped, kicking his foot out at Keith's thigh. “Asshole.”

Keith laughed in response and Lance couldn't help but fall into a fit of giggles with him. The two laughing like kids again as they held their bellies and kicked and slapped at each others. Lance didn't even care when a slosh of coffee spilled onto his top, though Keith found it highly amusing.

The two seemed to laugh until they forgot what even started it until they slowly calmed down and drifted into a comfortable silence.

That is until Keith decided to ruin it.

“So… What is it that's got you down today? If you wanna talk about it.” Keith asked, Lance thought he saw the hint of a blush but if he had it was gone in seconds as Keith straightened up and looked him in the eye.

Lance was overcome with a strange sense of deja vu. Lance was reminded of countless nights of sitting with Keith under the stars, Keith asking him that very same question. The only difference was back then Keith would look at him with such love and affection that Lance could almost trick himself that nothing was ever wrong. 

So, he answered the same way as he did back then.

“Nothing in particular.” Lance muttered, taking a long gulp from his coffee ignoring the burning sensation in his mouth and throat. “Just a combination of work, school and family. I'll be fine tomorrow.”

Keith sighed and muttered something under his breath. Lance could barely hear him but it sounded like he was asking “why are you always like this?”

“Listen, Keith. Don’t take this the wrong way.” Lance rolled his eyes at Keith’s childish reaction. Keith shouldn't act like he cared when Lance knew their arrangement just as much as he did. “But it’s not like we’re best friends. We’re fuck buddies. I’d rather keep my problems as they are. My problems.”

Keith’s expression immediately turned nasty and he glared hard at Lance who had just tried to be honest with him for a second. Keith slammed his mug down on the coffee table and crossed his arms like he always did. “Don’t worry. That’s been crystal clear for a long time.”

“Keith…” Lance whispered warningly. He hadn't wanted this to turn into an argument but he wasn't about to be guilted into telling the truth. “Don’t get into a humph about it. It’s not that deep. Honestly.”

“No. Lance. I get it!” Keith looked away now, tightening his crossed arms.

“Keith.” Lance placed his cup down on the table, softer than Keith had, and rested one hand down on Keith’s thigh to try and get him to look back at him. He  _ really _ didn't want to fight about this. “Please.”

“I said I get it Lance. Now you’re the one making it deep.”

Keith copied Lance's tone and accent in a mocking voice and Lance couldn't help sigh. Perhaps in some warped way Keith did care, but that didn't change the fact that Lance's wasn't about to talk about this.

“Keith. We sleep together, because of which I have to trust you a little bit. Which, surprise, I do trust you, a lot actually, a hell of a lot.” Lance whispered gently, he was just happy that Keith hadn't slapped his hand away. “This is just something I don’t feel comfortable talking about. With anyone.”

Keith glared at him for another minute, but maybe the sad expression on Lance’s face caused a change of heart and Keith’s expression soon softened up with a defeated sigh. It’s not like Lance didn’t want to tell Keith, he just couldn’t, even after his family troubles going on for so long Lance was still sensitive about the topic. 

“Fine.” He mumbled. “Sorry for asking.”

“It's fine.” Lance shrugged. “... and sorry. We’re not just fuck buddies. I didn't mean that.”

Keith nodded but didn't say another word and the pair fell quiet.

A few moments later, Keith looked down at Lance's hand, both realising that he still hadn't taken away. Upon realising, Lance ripped away as if burned and coughed awkwardly, wiping the building sweat on his hands on to the chair.

Both picked up their cups again and continued slowly sipping at the drinks, though Lance's was cold and left a nasty taste in his mouth now so he wasn't really drinking it for the buzz, more so to avoid finding his next words to say. Not that it mattered though since Keith was the one who kickstarted the chatter again.

“Are you doing anything over the Christmas break?” Keith suddenly piped up once more.

Lance hadn’t even really been thinking about Christmas and the holidays, he’d been so preoccupied with college, work and… Well, Keith. He’d barely taken the time to realise that this was his last week of college until he finally had a break, and even better he only had one assignment that wasn’t due until a few days after they came back, meaning he did have the entire holiday to do as he wanted.

“Well I suppose I’ll go home.” Lance gulped. “Spend a couple of weeks with family.”

“Soak up the Colorado winter sun?” Keith smiled softly.

Lance shrugged. “Probably just babysitting but I will try.”

“Your parents still working then? I thought your dad retired back when we were in high school?” Keith asked, completely innocently, but Lance tried to hide his muscles tensing in worry.

“He found a new job.” After being fired for his absence, Lance didn't add on. “Mama does night cleaning a lot and when I'm there she covers a few day time shifts too since I'm the main babysitter.”

“Fair enough.”

“I-” Lance hesitated, given what Keith and Lance were doing it was only fair that he let Keith know what Lance was planning right, in terms of his family, and going home to help out. “I’m thinking of going back.”

“Yeah.” Keith nodded. “We just discussed that.”

“F-For longer than the holidays.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.” Lance gulped, fiddling with his fingers. “A while.”

“College?”

“Take a break. Come back in September or maybe the September after.”

Keith’s face was expressionless and it gave Lance a funny feeling in his belly. “Your mother okay’d this?”

“Well no but-”

“Then get the idea out of your head.” Keith smacked a hand down on Lance’s head. “She’d never agree in a million years.”

“Bu-”

Keith held his hand up to silence Lance, clearly not believing in the karma that came your way from interrupting. “You know she wouldn’t agree. No matter what you guys are going through at home. It’s better you drop that idea and figure something else out, Lance.”

Lance sighed. Keith was right, his mother would kill him before allowing him to dropout of college, he’d have to come up with something else.

The two continued to talk about something or nothing for the next half an hour, they joked and teased each other but it felt almost normal, like they'd been doing for years, like they never stopped. It was a slice of normality that comforted Lance in the best way.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as Keith stretched out his back until it clicked.

“I suppose I should go.” Keith sighed, leaning forward to place his empty cup on the coffee table. “Hunk will be home soon. Plus, we both have class tomorrow and I have an assignment due Thursday morning so I should rest so I can finish it tomorrow with plenty of time.”

Lance watched as Keith slowly rose to his feet and began to head out the room. Lance was quick to follow, placing his own mug next to Keith’s on the table and followed him out. 

At the door, Keith slowly scrambled with his shoes, avoiding Lance’s gaze as best as he could.

“Umm…” Lance gulped, reaching to the back of his neck and rubbing at it discomfort. “I am sorry about tonight Keith. For not texting to cancel our plans.”

“It’s fine.” Keith mumbled. “It’s just casual anyway, don’t worry so much about it.”

Lance nodded but he still didn’t feel any better. 

All of a sudden, something felt off… Lance had slightly felt it all night but only now was it really starting to nag at Lance's mind. Like an unspoken thought. A secret that neither of them know yet needed to be out in the open.

“Keith…” Lance gulped. “Are you alright?”

Keith looked up from his bent over position, his brows creasing in confusion. 

“Yeah?” He mumbled. “Just putting my shoes on.”

Lance turned away. Something must have been on Keith's mind. Lance could feel it against his skin. Perhaps Lance and Keith were more alike than they gave each other credit for. Or perhaps Lance was just dramatic and in this case wrong and nothing was bothering Keith.

“Di-Did you want me to walk you? Since its late?”

Keith stood up straight fully after pulling both shoes on and smirked. “Walk me where?”

“I dunno.”

Keith smiled again. “Well thanks for the offer but it's fine. As I've said before. I live in the neighbourhood.”

“Okay.”

Keith pulled his jacket from the hook and threw it over his arm rather than put it on before stepping forward into Lance's body.

The two must have been on different wavelengths as Lance immediately felt the need to press his lips against Keith's, and before he could realise  _ bad idea, Lance  _ he had already leaned forward and lifted his hand to cup Keith's cheek.

Keith's eyes widened in surprise and that was enough for Lance to pull his finger out and throw himself backwards, but before he could run for the hills Keith looped a finger around his waist and pulled him back, close enough to touch but thankfully not close enough to feel the huff of Keith’s chuckle against his skin.

“What was that?” Keith smiled.

“Sorry. I’m not really sure how to react in this situation.” Lance grabbed at his neck. “Are we at that stage where we kiss each other goodbye? Is that weird? It’s weird right? Like we’re casual but we’re also friends and I kiss Hunk goodbye all the time so is that a stage we can access or are we just not g-”

“Do you want to be at that stage?”

“I mean… You’re a wet kisser so if we did it’d save me from washing my face later.” Lance joked, only to try and bring the power back to him since right now he was a blushing, sweating mess who was struggling to breathe.

“I am not a wet kisser!” Keith immediately gasped, punching at Lance’s shoulder.

Lance couldn’t help but giggle at Keith’s entirely offended expression. “You totally are. Maybe instead of working on your blowjob skills you should work on your ability to not eat your partners entire face.”

Keith growled and stuffed his face into Lance’s neck, inhaling Lance’s scent before pulling back again and brushing his lips against Lance’s. “I’ll show you eating face.”

“I’m sure you will.” Lance managed to slide in before Keith shoved their mouths together, much too rough and, just like Lance had expected, much too wet. But nevertheless, he enjoyed the kiss because he would never get sick of sucking face with Keith Kogane. 

A few moments later, Keith pulled away with a look of triumph on his face and Lance couldn’t help but wipe at his mouth to show how much saliva Keith had transferred over pretty much the entire bottom half of his face. 

“You know what? Fine.” Keith growled. “So, I’m a little wet when I kiss. Big deal.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing.” Lance chuckled. “But being able to kiss slow and gentle once in a while is a sure fire way to get yourself laid.”

“Are you seriously giving me advice? How many people have you fucked again?”

“Shut up, not all of us are massive dom-sluts.” Lance pouted, going to pull away again but Keith held him firm and in place.

The two watched each other like Hawks, as if both waiting for the other to make a move and suddenly Lance felt very hot under the collar because he was hit with the totally irrational thought of  _ shit! I really wanna kiss Keith, I wanna hold him tight and press my lips to his gently, I wanna feel his breathing against my top lip every time he exhales from his nose. I wanna curl my fingers in his hair, not tight and not to pull but just to hold him. I never want to let go of him. _

That thought was scary to Lance and even though he willed it to not be true. It was. With Keith here, wrapping his arms around Lance so snugly it feels so familiar. Like stepping through the front door after a long shift at work. Like those first steps out of an exam hall when the exam had been pretty grueling to say the least… McClain family dinners, his mother's smile.

Gods. It feels like going home.

“I’m going to kiss you again.” Keith whispered, so soft and gentle yet it felt like heavy drums in Lance’s mind, thumping against his brain and leaving him winded.

Lance nodded but he could tell he was shaking. In anticipation. In fear. Whatever it was, Lance wasn’t sure.

Keith leaned forward again, his lips brushed against Lance’s at first, like feather touch, and then Keith twisted his head slightly to the right and pushed in again so their lips connected more firmly. Slotting into place like their lips were two pieces of a jigsaw. Keith’s lips were gentle, teasing and obviously gone too soon. When he pulled away, Lance kept his eyes closed for the few seconds following living off the high that Keith gave him.

“Shit…” Lance whispered as he opened his eyes. Keith had barely moved back at all so Lance could feel his uneven pants against his skin. “That’s better. Okay.”

Keith smiled.

“Do it again.” Lance whimpered, his tone approaching desperate. He wanted it so much. He wanted everything, every part that Keith would give him. He’d take all of it gladly, never give it back.

Keith gulped before closing the distance and softly pressing his lips against Lance once more, this time both kept their eyes open and watched each other cautiously, just for a few seconds before Lance had to close it eyes, he couldn’t look anymore. His heart was thumping so loud in his chest he’d be more surprised if Keith couldn’t feel it… Or hear it.

Lance felt Keith open the kiss and softly brush his tongue against Lance’s bottom lip before sucking it in and biting it so softly it had Lance seeing stars. How could a kiss be so soft, so loving and yet so incredibly filthy that it made Lance tempted to go visit his confession.

Another soft bite had Lance moaning and the entire atmosphere shifted as Lance threw his arms around Keith’s neck, there was no distance too close but god if Lance didn’t try, rubbing his body against Keith’s like a 16 year old again as Lance responded to Keith’s touches and opened his mouth too.

Keith whined as Lance slithered his hands down, stroking against Keith’s arms where they dropped pathetically at his sides, Lance guided those arms up so Keith could wrap around Lance’s neck this time, which he did with much vigor, sliding his fingers into Lance’s hair and holding on for dear life.

Lance knew the feeling. He circled his arms around Keith, across his shoulder blades, down his back until they brushed against the swell of Keith’s perfect behind. Keith gasped at the touch, pushing back against Lance’s hands. Message received, Lance cupped at Keith’s ass and mashed the two perfect orbs in his hands as if they held the secrets of the universe.

Lance pulled away from Keith’s lips just for a second to ask. “Is this okay?”

Keith whined again, pulling Lance back in to kiss at a bruising strength. Lance supposed he could take that for a yes.

They kissed like they fought, hard, neither wanting to give up, both fighting to win but when Keith moaned out Lance’s name through their lips, his voice something dangerous, like Lance’s favourite song on repeat and suddenly something snapped.

Lance grabbed at Keith’s thighs and hoisted him up, immediately slamming him against the front door. Keith let out a grunt of either pain or pleasure, or maybe a mixture of both before curling his legs around Lance’s waist. Having Keith in the air gave him a few inches over Lance and he twisted his face down, hair falling in front of his face and tickling at Lance’s cheeks.

“Bedroom?” Keith whimpered, but as Lance opened his eyes again he saw something primal in the boy who was staring back at him.

Lance didn’t need convincing, he immediately made a beeline for his room, slamming the door shut behind them before he made his way over to the bed and threw Keith down against his. Crawling up into his lap and straddling him, but Lance couldn’t escape those lips, they were back on him in a second and Lance would never have it any other way. 

He felt Keith scramble for the hem of his top but Lance immediately reached and stopped those curious fingers, he pulled them up and abandoned Keith’s lips to press gentle kisses to the knuckles.

Keith stared at him in confusion and probably frustration as he tried to capture Lance’s lips again, but Lance wouldn’t allow it (for the moment anyway) as he climbed out of Keith’s laps and stood proudly in front of him. Embarrassment be gone, he needed this more than oxygen.

“I wanna suck you off.” Lance mumbled, slowly sinking to his knees in front of Keith. “Wanted this for weeks.”

Keith sat up like a shot and stared down at him. His eyes misty with lust, he tried to speak but all that came out were stuttery half-words and soft moans, eventually he settled for just a nod which spurred Lance forward. Lance pulled Keith’s shoes back of his feet, he wouldn’t be needing those, and threw them over his shoulders without a passing glance.

“Thought about taking you in my mouth.” Lance whispered, reaching up the buckle of Keith’s jeans and making quick work of it before focusing on the zipper. “Thought about your fingers in my hair as you panted my name just in the seconds before you cum down my throat.”

“Fuck, Lance.” Keith gasped just as Lance tugged his trousers and boxers down to his ankles and off, another thing thrown away with no second thought, letting Keith’s already full mast erection bounce against his stomach and back again. “You’re such a slut.”

Lance smirked as he trailed his fingers up Keith’s thigh teasingly.

“Only for you.” He responded honestly before taking Keith’s erection in one hand and working his way over it, spreading the precum down as soon as it gathered at the tip. “Only ever for you.”

Lance didn’t wait for any response, not even really expecting one honestly, before he pressed his lips onto Keith’s tip. Lance felt a wave of worry wash over him immediately. He hadn’t done this in a long time, sure he’d given it a go with his last hookup but he was very drunk at the time, plus Lance wanted this to be good for Keith, do the things that made his back arch and toes curl. So much time had passed since Lance last sucked Keith off, from when they were dating before. They’d never attempted oral with each other since the new arrangement, so what if Lance wasn’t good? He wanted Keith to cum more than anything, more than he wanted to pass his Major at this point.

Silently hoping that sucking dick was like riding a bike, Lance wrapped his lips further down Keith’s cock and began to slowly bob down onto it with a little bit of speed, using his hands to cover the lower areas that Lance was always too afraid to reach for.

Something must be good because Keith’s fingers immediately wrapped into Lance’s hair and let out a moan so drop dead gorgeous that it was almost a blessing from the gods itself.

Lance’s confidence grew, he swirled his tongue around Keith’s helmet, listening to each whimper and moan and storing them in his mind like like top tips. Keith’s thighs would shake each time Lance’s tongue grazed against his tip. His fingers would tighten any time Lance would softly cup his balls. His moans would catch in his throat anytime Lance took him in a little further than usual.

Lance couldn’t stop, he drank in everything, every noise, every movement. He wanted to note this moment and mark it as a memory that he’d take the grave.

“ _ Fuck _ .” Keith whimpered, his fingers clenching and unclenching in Lance’s hair almost sporadically, as if every time he wanted to hold tight he knew he couldn’t, but he just could not stay hands free either.. “ _ Lance wait. I'm go- I'm gonna cum.” _

Lance moaned his affirmation but didn’t slow his efforts before he felt those damn fingers in his hair try and pull him away.

“ _ N-No! _ ” Keith groaned, his voice growing dark and gravely. “ _ I do-don’t want to! Not yet!” _

Lance moaned one more time around Keith but pulled away slowly with a lewd pop as his lips fell from Keith’s hard erection. 

“Wow.” Lance smirked up at him, his voice was shot and croaky. Licking his lips, satisfied to still be able to taste Keith mixed with a bit of salt against his tongue. “Was I really that good?”

Keith snorted as he removed his hands from Lance’s hair and tangled them up in his own, coming down from his almost high, he gently laid back against the bed, panting softly to get his breath back. “Fuck you, Lance.”

Lance climbed up onto the bed and laid beside him, facing him head on. “You always do.”

Within a second, Keith was on him, straddling his waist and gliding his bare ass against Lance’s length.

“Not tonight.” Keith gulped, almost coming across as shy for a second as he continued to rut against Lance. “Fuck me, Lance. I want you.”

“What?” Lance gawped. “Really?”

Keith nodded his head as he pulled Lance back into a sitting position, he released his hold for one second before pulling Lance’s t-shirt up and over his head. Lance was about to wrap his arms around Keith’s waist but before he could, the raven haired sex god had the audacity to climb off once more unto the bed, down on his back and spread his legs out wide like an open book.

Lance blushed crimson at the show Keith was giving him but couldn’t help himself. He just had to touch. He reached forward, his fingers trailing every part of Keith that was visible to him. 

“Come on, Lance.” Keith smirked up at him as Lance loomed over him, his eyes just as hungry as Lance’s. “Do you need a written invitation?”

“Hell no.” Lance smirked and pushed himself up and over towards his bedside table on the other end of the bed. 

Lance reached into the table pulling out lube and a condom for later. He positioned himself between Keith’s legs and used one hand to trace shapes and patterns over the paler boys thighs while using his other hand to open the cap of the lube and squirting a probably too generous amount onto the palm of his still moving hand.

Keith gulped in anticipation as Lance dropped the lube on the bed again and joined his other hand in the curving and swirling patterns before reaching Keith’s waiting pucker.

“Fuck.” Lance whispered as he stared down at Keith’s panting form that seemed to be absolutely aching for him. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Shut up, Lance.” Keith grumbled back, rolling his hips as best as he could and shivering at the feeling of Lance’s finger brushing against him.

Lance nodded his head in understanding before pulling the lube down to his fingers and rubbing them together, satisfied with the easy slide before positioning himself just above Keith’s asshole, occasionally brushing against it with a deep breath. 

“It’s going to be cold.” Lance whispered, trying to be considerate.

Keith grumbled impatiently under his breath. “It’s not a prostate exam, Lance, get on with it.”

“Don’t be such a grumble.” Lance scolded before pushing himself slowly past the ring of muscle. 

Lance slowly sank his finger through the tight muscle and the reaction from Keith was instant. Keith tried to reach down and force Lance's hand deeper and faster inside him but Lance was quick and removed the finger entirely until Keith's hands fell again the bed with a growl. 

Satisfied, Lance went to try again and this time was met with no impatience bar a couple of pathetic whines from Keith as he slowly inserted his fingers inside Keith until he was up to the knuckle. He paused, giving Keith a moment to adjust, Keith was tight almost as tight as their first time together so if Lance had to guess he'd say it wasn't often than Keith relinquished his power.

Lance sighed happily before flexing his finger inside Keith causing the pale boy to gasp, pathetically attempting to push himself back onto Lance's finger but Lance held him down with his other hand rendering the attempts useless.

“Lance, come on.” Keith attempted a growl but his voice came out as a squeak as Lance slowly began to move, using his finger to deliver sharp but shallow thrusts into the boys slowly loosening hole.

Lance worked him open like that, electing to go slow and gentle before deciding Keith was ready for another. He eased his finger out to the tip before slowly pushing back including a second finger this time. Keith arched his back over the bed followed by a series of curse words that even Lance was too Christian to repeat. 

“Another.” Keith called out, arching off the bed again. “Lance! Add another.”

Lance nodded his head in agreement before adding a third finger, twisting and curling all three inside of Keith at once until he was keening and whining, slightly pushing back onto Lance’s hand but at this point Lance didn’t mind so much. He thrusted inside, harder and deeper than he usually would, he knew this was how Keith liked it.

If he had the time, he’d take his time, go so slow that Keith would be nothing more than a blubbering mess, tears falling from his eyes, his cock so hard it could burst and Lance would leave him there, hanging on the edge of ecstasy. But he didn’t have the time, and Keith was getting more and more impatient, torn between shoving his head in the blankets and pushing himself back against Lance’s fingers.

“I’m ready!” Keith gasped at a particularly well angeled thrust. “Now, Lance! Fuck me now!”

Lance smirked down at the boy, so lost in his pleasure. Lance could get used to this, he’d spend every minute worshipping Keith’s body, relearning every freckle, every line and dip that by the time he was done he’d know Keith better than he knew himself.

“Not yet.” Lance growled possessively, leaning forward and biting into Keith’s cheeks as he continued to thrust. “I want you to take every inch of me.”

“I can do it!” Keith cried back, was he actually crying? If only Lance could see his face right now, that would make every wet dream he has ever or will ever have. “God, Lance, I need to cum.”

“Then cum.” Lance chuckled back with another bite.

“N-Not till-  _ fuck _ \- you’re inside me.”

Lance huffed in happy surprise, not even his wet dreams could ever come up with something as hot as that. He felt his resolve cave immediately, he wanted to give this boy everything he asked for before he even had the need to ask for it.

But he couldn’t just give up, not when he had the power.

“Say please.” Lance smirked, Keith had used that line on him a thousand time and it seemed Keith realised this as well as he moaned so deep and guttonal that Lance could have cum right there and then if he hadn’t been so surprised.

“Please!” Keith whimpered back without any argument. “I’ll b-beg! Please! Please! Please!”

That was more than enough for Lance, he only needed one and Keith gave him four. So he’d give Keith 4x what he was asking for. Lance unsheathed his fingers and stepped up from the bed, pulling down his joggers and boxers in one fail swoop. He stalked to his bedside where he grabbed one of the condoms he’d bought initially for Keith to use, he’d never expected this turn of events, and trust, he’d be thanking his lucky stars for the rest of his life.

Lance unwrapped the condom and quickly slipped it around his cock before crawling back up behind Keith who honestly looked like he was having a meltdown, his breaths so loud that they resonated in Lance’s mind.

After a few more moments of staring and the occasional grab, Keith began to grow impatient again and went to turn around but Lance immediately grabbed at his waist to keep him in place, the whine Keith released was extraordinary but it wasn’t about to break Lance, not now.

Lance slowly lined himself up, guiding his throbbing length up and down the cleft of Keith’s ass, occasionally catching on his rip and causing a pornographic gasp to escape the boys lips.

Another minute or two of teasing and Lance finally pushed in, the tight embrace was so welcome that it was lucky Lance didn’t blow his load immediately upon entrance. He continued to gently push in until his helmet was plugged inside of Keith.

“ _ Shi _ -” Keith gasped. “ _ Keep going!” _

Carefully, Lance glided himself in a couple more inches before stopping again, allowing Keith the time to adjust, he was extremely tight, so much so Lance was worried if he went any faster or harder he would hurt the shorter boy.

“ _ Lance, more _ .” Keith whined, pushing back against him once more but Lance held strong and didn’t move an inch. He only gave Keith what he wanted and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed the power for once.

“You’ll wait.” Lance growled, leaning forward till his lips brushed against Keith's ear,  occasionally raking his teeth down the side. 

Lance continued the achingly slow speed and shallow, barely there, thrusts before Keith began to shuffle uncomfortably from the bed. Keith reached up and quickly threw his arms around Lance's neck, pulling him in till their chests and lips brushed together. 

“Lance. I'm ready. I want you to fuck me.” Keith whined. “I want you to be rough with me… Like the old days.”

Lance gulped, taken back by the reference Keith had made. Keith had never even mentioned their previous relationship since the beginning of this new relationship they had going on. Was that a good sign? 

“... Okay baby.” Lance whispered, experimentally rolling his hips, he waited until he completely bottomed out, then after a few seconds pulled out entirely. “Turn over. I'll fuck you like you want me to.”

Keith nodded his head excitedly and contorted his body so that he twisted over onto his hands and knees. After adjusting into a more comfortable position, Lance lined himself up once more and gently pushed in once more until his thighs were flush against Keith’s once more.

“Lance.” Keith whimpered almost immediately. “Do it.”

Lance nodded his head, he couldn’t even believe he was here let alone had Keith practically begging underneath him. It took all of Lance’s strength not to slam into the boy in one big thrust just to drive the point home that this was real. He was here. Keith was here. Keith wanted him.

Lance started off slow at first, much to Keith’s whiny pleas, rolling his hips until he was comfortably nestled to the hilt inside of Keith. Then, after a few moments he pulled out once more all the way to the tip, paused a second before sliding all the way down again. Lance followed this same pattern slowly until Keith loosened up around him, a wet, weeping mess.

After a few more thrusts, Lance finally took a bit of initiative and increased his speed a little, leaving no pauses and just carefully thrusted into Keith with long, slow pulls that he slowly began to increase in intensity. 

“ _ Oh Lance _ !” Keith practically howled. “ _ Harder. I can't cum like this. Harder, come on.” _

Lance felt a little pity as he stared down at Keith, a writhing mess scrambling and scratchy at the sheets like an animal in heat, trying so desperately to push back against Lance to find that extra friction.

“Manners, Keith.” Lance whispered, only to keep the control he had but he was certain he'd give Keith what he wanted regardless of his response.

“ _ Oh please. Fuck. Please Lance. Fuck me harder. I want to cum. Please. Please!” _

The words went straight to Lance's dick and the result was instant as Lance grabbed a tight hold of Keiths waist once more and began to pound into him more roughly. Choosing to slow down his thrusts in order to deliver more deliberately rough slow pounds.

“ _ Oh fuck. So good. You're so good, Lance. Right there. Like that.” _

Lance wasn’t surprised by how vocal Keith was, in fact the raven haired boy put Lance to shame with the words he’d come out with when in that prime area of pleasure. Keith’s dirty talk made Lance’s look like bible prayer.

“S-Say my name Keith. Let everyone know that only I can make you feel like this.”

“ _ Sh-Shit.”  _ Keith gasped. “ _ Lance _ .  _ Only you. It feels so good. Fuck. Fuck.” _

Lance continue to lean down so his chest was down against Keith's back, Lance snaked his other hand to wrap around him, hugging him closer as he continued to pound Keith just the way he wanted it.

_ “Lance.”  _ Keith whined once more. “ _ Kiss me. Fuck. Kiss me please.” _

Lance, a people pleaser, was quick to respond, pressing kisses to Keiths cheek and temple until the shorter boy twisted his face to that Lance could begin to lay kisses to the side of his mouth and nose before capturing his lips fully. Plunging his tongue sloppily into Keith's mouth, alternating between kissing and sucking on his bottom lip.

Keith moaned loud, the vibrations against his lip were a welcomed guest by Lance. 

“Fuck. Keith. You're amazing.” Lance whispered. 

“Lance!” Keith gasped against Lance's mouth. “I'm gonn- I want to cum. D-daddy. Please let me cum.”

Lance gulped, accidently slowing his thrusts which caused Keith to verbally cry out and bounce back against him again to recover the lost speed. It wasn't Lance's fault, why would Keith bring up one of Lance's old kinks now?  Of all the times to bring it up. So naturally too, like he’d been saying it the whole time. 

Lance quickly straightened up once more before using one hand to pull Keith into his thrusts, using the other to grab hold of his hair and give a swift sharp tug that caused the other boy to wince.

“You little shit.” Lance purred, wrapping his slender fingers even deeper into the roots of Keith’s hair, listening to every whine and gasp Keith released.

Keith wasn't the only one who could bring up their past kinks.

“ _ L-Lance, please. _ ”

“You can cum baby. Cum for daddy.”

Keith practically purred in response and Lance couldn't help himself.

“Sh-Shit, Keith.” Lance cried out as his thrusts became erratic, trying desperately to chase his high. He was faintly aware of Keith tensing up beneath him, the muscle over Lance's cock included until Lance gave one final thrust as he came calling out Keith's name like usual.

Seconds later, Lance hit the sheets, pulling himself slowly and carefully from Keith. With both of them lying side by side on their fronts there was nothing stopping Lance from closing the distance and pressing his lips gently against Keith's. Keith froze immediately but Lance ignored it as he struggled to use one arm to hook into Keith's hair keeping him pulled close and unable to escape. It took a few moments but Keith did ease into it and offered a short kiss back before forcibly pulling away and rolling over onto his front, seeming to groan when his head hit the bed. 

Lance chuckled and got up to his feet. “I'll get you a cloth or something to clean you up… Umm sorry I made a mess.”

Keith suddenly shot up like a bullet till he was sat up on the bed and seemed to look at Lance with confusion for a second before shrugging. “It's whatever. I don't live far, I'll just clean up properly at home.”

Lance stuttered. “Oh? You're going home already?”

Keith seemed to freeze as well. “Umm. Yeah. I’ve got class… and a paper… Plus, Hunk and… Yeah. I have to go.”

“Oh. Alright.” Lance knew that he was visibly showing his distaste in Keith’s action but Keith clearly pretended not to notice. Choosing to get up and start grabbing his various articles of clothing that had been thrown across the room.

The usual routine.

Lance was sick of it. Sick of this feeling. He’d thought that today would be different, that after their night Keith would… want to stay.

“Yeah you better go.” Lance sighed, spotting his boxers on the floor and reaching for them quickly to pull up his legs. “I don’t want Hunk to see you. That’d be awkward for both of you.”

“Exactly.” Keith quietly agreed, grabbing the last few items and throwing them haphazardly on his body before quickly shuffling over to the door. Lance followed him all the way to the front door which clearly made Keith feel even more uncomfortable as he clumsily pulled on his shoes and jacket. 

“Good night, Keith. Get home safe.” Lance whispered as he reached to open the front door himself and usher Keith out. This time, not even attempting to kiss him goodbye.

“... Thanks Lance. Good night.”

Lance closed the door slowly behind him and after a few moments he turned around and leaned back against the door. Then, as if in slow motion, his knees gave out beneath him and he slowly slid down the door until his ass hit the floor and his arms fell into his lap in complete and utter defeat. 

Lance has always considered himself a sensitive man deep down.

But even he was surprised that it didn’t take long for the tears to fall as he thought of the love that he had truly lost. 


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest. This was my least favourite chapter to write in this entire story (not including the four chapters which I haven't finished yet). Not just because of the topics this chapter covers but just the actual writing process. The first draft of this chapter was originally only 2000ish words long and I had to bulk this chapter out so much.
> 
> So yeah this chapter was not fun.
> 
> But now we play the game of "can I finish this story before the final season comes out and Voltron stops being relevant?" 
> 
> We will have to see.

When Lance woke up the next morning, it felt like he had gone from one nightmare to the other.

The nightmare that kept Lance tossing and turning all night had him contemplating his own self, his loneliness, his desire to succeed but the lack of skill to get him there, his helplessness, clinginess, financial struggles, fears, anxiety, it all attacked him like arrows from a bow, each one piercing his armour one after the after.

Then, when he awoke, not a damn thing changed. He was still smacked with that overwhelming self doubt, that plummeting self esteem. He was pathetic, a nobody, his very existence was futile in the grand scheme of things… Unloveable. Desperate. Weak.

The pain in Lance’s chest, hammering away at his rib cage like kettle drums, was enough to make him hit the snooze button three times before Hunk knocked on the door and entered slowly, Lance couldn’t see with his face in the pillows but he could hear Hunk cautiously shuffle across the room, socks slowly sliding against the wooden floorboards..

“Lance?” His best friend whispered.

Lance buried his face further into the pillows, pulling the blanket up to cover over his head entirely, he just wanted the covers to eat him alive, but right now he felt like a prisoner in his own sheets. He felt the end of his bed sink down as Hunk took a seat.

“Lance, buddy?” Hunk rested his hand down on Lance’s raised hip. “Are you okay?”

Lance wanted nothing more than to shake his head and dive into his very subconscious and reveal every little self deprecating thought he’d ever had, to reveal every bad thought that he was currently swimming in. Hunk had said he didn’t mind for Lance to do that in the past, but was it really the time to do it now? Before class?

As this thought his Lance, he twisted his head and took a breath to speak, but that was when he caught sight of the clock and immediately sprung himself from the bed, almost knocking Hunk off in the process. Sheets keeping him prisoner? Keep that lesbian poetry shit for the real problems, McClain! Lance had already had to miss yesterday’s lectures for work, he couldn’t miss another day!

“Ass! Is that the time already? My first lecture is in twenty minutes!”

Hunk must have thought he’d awoken a hurricane because Lance’s personality did a complete 180 degree turn as he pounced around his room trying to rush getting ready, he didn’t have time for a shower, or anything really for that matter so he quickly rubbed one of his expensive makeup wipes down his body, hoping to god that he could wipe off the scent of sweat and sex from his body.

Hunk must have been worried because he didn’t even mention the fact that Lance was bare as the day he was born as he jumped around, grabbing at random articles of clothing from his drawers and closet and pulled them snug against his body. He grabbed a body spray and sprayed until half the can was stuck to him and gave himself a once over in the mirror before sprinting to the bathroom to clean his teeth, brush his hair, and piss the river his bladder was currently carrying.

When he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, Hunk was stood nervously at the front door, Lance’s bag, coat and keys hanging over his arm in wait. Lance took it gratefully, shoving on an old pair of trainers before jumping out the front door, waiting for Hunk to follow.

Only then when the two were out the flat and on their way to campus did Lance finally take the opportunity to exhale and calm his rushing heart.

And only then, did Hunk open the previous conversation again.

“Lance?” Hunk mumbled cautiously, glancing at his best friend from the corner of his eye as they walked down their quiet road. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Lance gulped, being out the house was a bit difficult to have a heart to heart compared to when he was laying down in bed feeling sorry for himself. Right now he had other things on his mind, like the fact that they were going through the previous assessment results in his seminar today and he hadn’t done as well as he’d hoped so wasn’t really feeling up for that. Plus, he had another assignment due this week and he’d barely started it and would have to stay back tonight since it was his one day off from work between now and the due date.

“I’m fine.” Lance decided. “Just tired.”

Now was not the time, Lance could push it all under the carpet for a few days, spill the beans another day, there was no problem with doing that. Lance could switch off his emotions for the night, he had gotten quite good at that as of late.

Lance could see Hunk’s frown from the corner of his eye. “I assume… Keith came over yesterday?”

“For a bit.”

“How did that go?”

“W-We-” Lance stuttered, he didn’t want to lie but he also didn’t want to tell much of the truth. But, when he turned to Hunk and saw the look on his face, Lance felt like he had no choice but to divulge a little. “I made coffee and we sat and talked for a bit. Just about y’know life stuff, catching up, that kind of thing.”

“Okay…”

“Then he was going to leave but we just kind of started kissing and one thing led to another and- well y’know. The usual.” Lance explained slowly. “And then he left afterwards. Same as usual.”

“Then why are you…” Hunk struggled to find the word, using hand gestures to get his point across. “... Sad.”

“W-Well. I’m not sad. It’s just- Well I- I just- It was different this time is all!” Lance couldn’t keep it in anymore, public be damned. “There was foreplay, flirting, soft kissing at the door and then it was me who was on top and-”

“You switched? I thought you said Keith wasn’t into that anymore.” Hunk frowned, the pair stopped for a second at some red lights before continuing, Lance waiting till they got across the road before explaining more.

“Well apparently he said he’s never bottomed with anyone except me when we were dating before and pardon me if that got my hopes up a little bit when he wanted me to top and it was so soft and hot and it just reminded me of everything that I miss about him and- and-”

“Lance…” Hunk whispered.

“I know, I know!” Lance threw his hands up as they approached the campus gates. “I do this to myself. Just give me a few hours I’ll be right as rain again. It’s just knocked me off my game is all. That plus everything else. I’m just sensitive is all, I forgot to close the emotion doors and so a little bit of the Lance love slipped out. I can put it back.”

“If you say so, buddy.”

Lance whined at Hunk’s disbelieving remark but the two fell into comfortable silence for the rest of the way on their walk. It wasn’t much longer before the two reached the lecture halls and parted ways to go to their individual seminars.

Lance made his way to his own room and, when he arrived, did as good students do, sat down, took notes of what the lecturer had to say, marked down tips and tricks to include in his next essay so he didn’t lose easy marks again then waited the remaining hour until the seminar finished before heading straight to his next one. He tried to keep his mind out of dark alleys but it was very difficult when the lecturer wasn’t able to keep Lance’s engagement and attention. Lance couldn’t stop himself from questioning every decision from last night, from opening the door, letting Keith inside, making him coffee, talking to him for so long, kissing him at the door, making love to him…

That was the worst part. They hadn’t even fucked. What they did was too gentle, too slow and kind to be resolved to a word as harsh as “fucking”, they had made love, enjoyed each other’s bodies, worshipped one another… Or maybe that had just been Lance. He had definitely worshipped Keith’s body, every inch, from head to toe. From his soft hair to his sharp jawline, his thick arms and padded chest, his tiny waist and curved ass, his perfect length and strong thighs, all the way down to the tips of his sweet toes.

Maybe the... other issues going on had opened Lance up to feeling all of these… Feelings. But they definitely weren’t on Lance’s mind now, he couldn’t blame his family for the way he was pining after Keith like a teenager again, but, the fact remained.

Keith left.

Keith made the decision to get up, to go, he hadn’t even paused to bask in the afterglow, just jumped up as if that was the last place he wanted to be. Like being with Lance was like being in hell. Had Keith even wanted to have sex? He must have done, at the time he seemed as into a Lance had been. Had he regretted the switch? That could’ve been it. Maybe Lance wasn’t what he remembered and he really hated being the bottom in sexual experiences. Lance could understand that but… Couldn’t he have just… said?

The second seminar was a lot better when Lance was caught mid way through spiralling from the bell and made his way across the building where is second seminar was being held. Let it be known, it’s a lot easier to get things off the mind when you’re being bombarded with tricky information such as “the gravitational field around a star” and “when is our sun going to kill us all?” Or at least Lance thought so.

But before too long, the seminar ended and all those thoughts returned to Lance in a kind of bomb explosion fashion, he tried to twist his thoughts on the short walk over to the canteen but it didn’t work. He just couldn’t get Keith off of his mind.

What had triggered the change of events last name? Was it really just that Keith fancied a change and there was no other reason, no romantic reason? Surely, if Keith was so against the idea before then a change of mind could only be caused by something like a change of heart.

Or maybe it was pity.

Lance had been in a right sour mood when Keith had arrived, it had been the one and only time that Lance had asked for a rain check on the night. Perhaps Keith was just feeling pity for Lance, offered him the chance to have some control for once in the bedroom, even though Keith didn’t particularly enjoy it but-

Lance had tried so hard to make it good, that was all he wanted afterall, to make Keith’s toes curl and breath hitch in the same way that he did for Lance. But then, why offer yourself to do something you don’t enjoy for someone else’s benefit? Lance couldn’t get his head around it.

Well… Maybe he should. Because nothing really changed. Keith was up and out with barely a few words, there was no post-coital cuddles or sweet words shared, he ran the second he could.

When Lance finally reached the canteen, he’d done a pretty bang up job of shoving himself right into the dark place again.

He wasn’t good enough for someone like Keith anyway, that’s why Keith didn’t feel the same way about him. Keith was like lightning, strong, powerful, whereas Lance was like rain drops. Annoying.

There was nothing he could do about it. He just had to scoop up those emotions again and put them back in his “special box: only to be opened on rare occasions, open at own risk.”

Lance reached his friendship group not too long after and threw himself down unceremoniously into the chair with a loud thump.

“Lance, my coffee!” A voice gasped but Lance didn’t even bother looking up as he buried his head into his crossed arms on the table and whimpered pathetically as he curled in on himself.

“What’s eating him?”

A soft hand landed on Lance’s shoulder and gripped him tight as if grounding him to make sure Lance didn’t float away.

“Lance, buddy. I’ve got your lunch here.” The familiar voice of Hunk shined through when all the other voices didn’t and Lance lifted his head slowly to look. “It’s stir fry. I made it this morning because the peppers were turning. Eat up buddy, you didn’t eat breakfast remember.”

Lance frowned but did as he was told, it took all of his energy to sit back in his chair and accept the tupperware that Hunk was handing him as well as the fork, but it didn’t take long for Lance to get eating, the delicious smell too irresistible to deny. He didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the table but at least he now knew that three of the other chairs were taken by his friends who all talked quietly to each other, each trying to hide their frequent glances in Lance’s direction.

“Lance.” The sweet kind voice of Allura whispered just as Lance took the final mouthful of his food. “You seem upset. Is everything alright?”

“I’m fin-”

“It’s Keith.” Hunk interrupted.

In a different mood, maybe Lance would be annoyed, not for long since it was Hunk after all, but for a moment he would’ve been annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to just wallow in pity for a second and that his patheticness had to become dinner table conversation.

“What’s he done now?” Pidge groaned.

“Noth-”

“Lance caught feelings.” Hunk interrupted once more, Lance looked up to where Hunk was now sat on the opposite end of the table, Pidge on his left, Allura on his right, all watching Lance as if he was up on the stand or as if they were interviewing or something. Either way, it was unnerving enough. “Sorry, Lance, but I feel like you need to hear a second and third opinion.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know many of the details.” Allura frowned. “Of course, I suspected, but you told me there was nothing to suspect. That is until that meal for Shay’s birthday. It was obvious that there was something between the pair of you but I have no idea what.”

“They’re fuck buddies.” Pidge filled in. “They had this arrangement where they would fuck twice a week when Hunk was at work and then when they weren’t fucking they would try to avoid each other as much as possible. Obviously, with you and Shiro being a ‘ _thang_ ’ now it’s not so easy but they agreed to get along and ignore their past.”

Lance glared. “How do you know so much? I’ve only spoke to Hunk about this in detail.”

As Lance’s eyes glanced over to Hunk, he saw the taller boy looking very guilily at his lap before snapping up to meet Lance’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Lance, I had to talk to someone because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t agree with your decision so I wanted someone who shared my opinion to talk to about it.”

“So…” Lance frowned. “What? You have all thought this was a terrible idea from the beginning?”

“Well-” Allura gulped, avoiding Lance’s eyes. “Obviously, I don’t know much. Plus, even though not knowing you back then, you were always honest about how much your ex meant to you and how much it hurt when you two went your separate ways. It seems to me like falling back in to a certain line with that person has opened up some old wounds for you, Lance, and while still being involved in this arrangement it would be impossible for you to heal fully and completely from that hurt.”

“But I did heal from the break up!” Lance argued.

“Lance.” Hunk sighed. “To this day, you still won’t tell me the reasons for why the two of you broke up. Sure, yeah, awhile later you at least told me that it was Keith who did the dumping but did he tell you why? You’ve never-”

Lance smacked his hands down on the table to stop this ganging up, he wasn’t about to dive into this conversation and not for the reasons Hunk believed but because he just didn’t want to. “Because it doesn’t matter why!”

“Well there has to be a reason.” Pidge retorted, unaffected by Lance’s little outburst which had turned a few heads from around them in the cantine. “From our point of view, nothing was wrong, the two of you were the same as always and then suddenly you’ve missed a week of high school, the two of you have broken up, and Keith never wanted to talk to any of us ever again. You never explained anything then, not that you had to, and you still don’t explain now. That leads us to believe that you never got over the break up if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“You know what? You want to talk about the breakup?!” Lance snapped. “Fine! It’s not the breakup that I don’t want to talk about!”

Hunk sighed again. “Lance, you-”

“It was Friday night-” Lance interrupted with a clap of his hands. “Keith and I hadn’t spoken that week because of some issues going on in the background. He texted, asking if we could meet at the skatepark on the other side of his neighbourhood. We met up to talk about it. Keith basically told me that I was inconsiderate, that I was cruel-”

“Lance, people are staring.”

“and that he felt like he had no choice but to end things. So I let him. Didn’t argue. Didn’t do a god damn fucking thing!” Lance bellowed. “So yes. I can talk about the break up just fine. That’s not where the issues are here!”

“The issue-” Hunk lifted his hands in surrender as Lance began inhaling and exhaling rapidly to catch his breath, he hadn’t expected to blow his lid so quickly but talking about this was getting grating, like he was being picked on, he didn’t want to talk about the breakup because of other factors involved, namely, and he wasn’t about to tell the group this, but his family. It was a lot to do with family issues and differences why Keith and Lance ended.

“Lance.” Hunk broke Lance out of his head. “The issue is that you’re still in love with him.”

“I’m no-”

Hunk reached forward and plucked Lance’s hand up from across the table and held it. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make it seem like we’re ganging up on you. I just want you to see how much this is really affecting you. This isn’t just being a little bummed because Keith isn’t letting you fulfil your purpose as a romantic guy. It’s more than that. You want a relationship and you’re angry that Keith doesn’t want the same. Your emotions are off the chart, Lance.”

Lance immediately deflated. He couldn’t stand to be angry with his friends, or angry at all. Anger was a revolting emotion that Lance took no pleasure in taking part in, even if sometimes he wasn’t given the choice, in a way Hunk was right, Lance just had to listen.

“I don’t know, Lance.” Hunk sighed now, rubbing his thumb softly against Lance’s hand comfortingly. “I haven’t seen you this down since… The breakup. Maybe having this arrangement with Keith isn’t the best thing for you.”

“I agree.” Allura sighed speaking up for the first time in a while, Lance over to her to see she was giving her most sympathetic eyes she could. “If I had to guess, I don’t think you ever managed to get over Keith so having this arrangement… especially giving how he feels about it… It’s just not the best thing for you. It’s hurting you. You don’t deserve to be hurt, Lance.”

“Well… I don’t really know how Keith feels about it.” Lance whispered, his voice so hoarse and pathetic. “He might feel differently now than at the start.”

“Well it’s probably not the same as you.” Pidge mumbled quietly. “You know I suck with people feeling’s, Lance, but this isn’t healthy for you. You’re just pushing yourself further into a corner and you’re just getting stuck in this relationship that… may never be again.”

Hunk sighed. “It sounds harsh but I agree with Pidge.”

Lance thought to himself for a second. He knew that the group was right but that’s just what made it all the more difficult. He _did_ have to end it. He never should have started it. Every palpitation that Keith caused to Lance’s heart wasn’t a butterfly, or a skip like in the movies, it was a blockage that was getting more and more dangerous and would eventually drag Lance down into a world that would be difficult to escape.

“I know.” Lance whispered. “I just- I liked the arrangement.”

“We can imagine.” Pidge snorted softly but their eyes, surprisingly, were also filled with sympathy and even more surprisingly affection. “You don’t have to regret it, the pair of you got out of it what you wanted, but your feelings are morphing now Lance and it’s time to move on before it seriously hurts you.”

“It’s reached its finale.” Allura nodded. “It’s best for you to end it now.”

“Now?” Lance gulped. “Like right now?”

Hunk’s soft smile turned gently teasing. “No time like the present.”

“Well what about on Friday? It’s Wednesday now, that gives me two sleeps and one-”

“One last night with Keith.” Pidge clocked on and snorted. “You are such a thirsty hoe. We tell you that this is hurting you and you have to end it and you wanna get your dick wet one more time.”

Lance blushed and stared down at his feet, sure that was what he had been thinking but he hadn’t expected his friends to catch on and bring it up especially given the mood right now. Damn Pidge and Hunk always trying to lighten tough situations by pulling Lance under the metaphorical bus.

“It is-” Hunk chuckled softly, still rubbing at Lance’s hand. “It is best to do it now. Cut yourself away, heal then come back. No one knows the future for you and Keith but it definitely isn’t this.”

Lance nodded his head in understanding. “You guys are right. I should just do it. There’s no future for Keith and I.”

Lance pulled his phone from his pocket and placed it down on the table.

“What do I say?” Lance gulped.

“Just send it all in one swoop text.” Allura mumbled. “Don’t ask to talk, don’t say hey, don’t leave time where you could change your mind. Just end it. Right now. Like a plaster, rip it off.”

Nodding, Lance picked up his phone and scrolled down to Keith’s contact and began composing his message, he tried not to think too much about what he was saying, better to sound unbothered and uncaring to save face a bit but he realised he clearly couldn’t do that when he read over the passage half a dozen times checking his spelling and punctuation to make sure they were as immaculate as he knew how to do.

[11:52] _Lance: Hey Keith._

_Lance: Sorry if you’re in class but I just wanted to let you know something_

_Lance: I think it’s time for us to stop the arrangement now_

Send. Lance placed his phone down on the table and sighed. Like a bandaid. It was done now, it was over. Keith probably wouldn’t reply till later, if at all, so there was no reason for Lance to check his phone or-

Lance’s phone vibrated against the table, a surprise that had Lance yelp. Three eyes from the table looked up at him and watched as Lance apprehensively unlocked his phone and opened the reply.

[11:53] _Keith: How come?_

Lance gulped, looking back up at his friends in a silent plea for help. He hadn’t thought this far ahead, he hadn’t thought that Keith would question it. Why was Keith questioning it? Keith hated texting and never opened up to further conversation. Lance had only expected an “ _okay”_ at midnight tonight and no other attempts at communication for a long while.

“What did he say?” Pidge was the only one confident enough to ask.

“He asked why.” Lance whispered, staring down at the text as if behind it was written some secret response or answer that Keith was looking for.

“You know... You could lie.” Allura quickly supplied, gasping and leaning forward to pluck Lance’s phone from his hand. “Tell him you found someone else. Maybe he might try and fight for you two to stay together.”

“Allura…” Hunk shot back a disappointed look. “That’s not the point of Lance doing this.”

“It’s worth a try, right?” She responded, handing Lance back his phone as quickly as she had snatched it. “Perhaps, the reason Keith has not made any interest he may or may not have clear is because he believes that Lance is always going to be available to him. Therefore, as soon as he realises that Lance has something elsewhere he may realise what he’s doing, explore his own emotions for a while. Even if there are no feelings at least he might feel a bit of remorse, an apology for his density perhaps.”

“Doubt it.” Pidge grumbled quietly, probably trying not to be heard by Lance but he heard them anyway.

Lance sighed, looking down at the text once more. “Maybe I- I’ll- I’ll try it. What harm would it do?”

“Famous last words.” Pidge gulped but leaned in closer nonetheless as Lance began drafting his next, reading it over and over again, letting the guys get involved and make suggestions until he finally got the courage to hit send.

[12:02] _Lance: There’s this girl on my course. I’m going to ask her out, take her out on a date._

_Lance: and it would be a pretty dick move to try and start something with her_

_Lance: when we’re doing what we’ve been doing. So it’s best we stop it now._

_Lance:  Hope you understand._

[12:03] _Keith: Okay._

Lance stared down at his phone, his eyes slightly widened as he stared down at the brutal, heart tearing message.

“What did he say?” Allura asked, Lance could hear the hope in her tone and he immediately recoiled from it, choosing to lock his phone and roughly shove it back into his pocket.

“He said okay.”

“Oh, Lance, I’m sorry I-” Allura started but Lance held his hand up and stopped her.

“It’s fine!” He snapped but his tone was anything but fine. “What should I have expected? Keith has made it clear what he intended from this arrangement and all he knows is that I’ve followed the conditions. No one’s in the wrong. No one is-”

“Lance.” Pidge gulped, looking around, the young one was probably worried about Lance’s volume and they were probably right. With a defeated sigh, Lance stared down at his lap, holding his hands there tightly as he felt another emotion rush up inside him.

Lance felt the silent tears dribble down his face, his heart feeling like it was ripping in two.

“I-I just-” Lance’s lip began to quiver as Hunk suddenly bolted around the table and grabbed Lance in his arms, squeezing Lance’s face into his shoulder, maybe that was Hunk’s way of keeping Lance’s tears hidden from the world, so that his sadness was a secret from everyone else. “I thought I-”

“I’m so sorry, Lance.” Hunk whispered, soothingly rubbing his hands through Lance’s hair. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“I just thought I meant more to him.”


	13. Chapter Thirteen

A few days passed and Lance would be lying if he said he wasn’t… Kinda a wreck. Eventually Saturday rolled around and Lance found himself in a weird position. Tomorrow was his first Sunday off in months. Originally, he was supposed to be working but his coworker Nyma had asked to swap her Tuesday with his Sunday. Normally he’d say no but, it’s not like he had other plans on a Tuesday anymore.

Unfortunately, as soon as his friends had caught a whiff of his freedom they were all making plans for him for tonight. Those plans happened to be a party, which Lance was totally in the mood for, absolutely, though the half empty Ben and Jerry's in the freezer… That he bought this morning might disagree.

“It'll give you a chance to let loose.” Hunk had rested his hand on Lance's shoulder reassuringly. “You can drink and dance and just forget about everything for the night.”

The pair were sat in the living room. Hunk on one side of the couch and Lance spread across it with his head resting in Hunks lap and his legs hanging loosely over the other side.

The pair had been spent most of their morning there since Hunk had the day off himself today. The pair had watched reruns of Gordon Ramsey and Chopped while Lance had whimpered pathetically and got the majority of his ice cream on Hunks leg rather than his own mouth.

“I'm just not in the mood to get dolled up, Hunk.” Lance whined, twisting his head to face away from Hunks gentle gaze. “And that's the best part of the night. The getting ready. How am I gonna enjoy the party if I don't enjoy the best bit?”

“Because it's just gonna be us guys.” Hunk shuffled underneath him before running his fingers into Lance's hair. “Me, you, Pidge and Allura. Just the awesome foursome. Pidge and Allura are gonna come over for dinner and then we are all gonna get ready together.”

“All four of us?” Lance raised a skeptical eyebrow. 

“Yes. Allura wants you to do your hair.” Hunk smiled. “And Pidge  _ might  _ let you brush hers.”

Lance gawped, a surprised but happy smile filling his cheeks as he twisted around to look to see if anything on Hunks face said he was lying.  “Really?!”

“Hell yeah.” Hunk winked. “She told me so herself.”

It wasn’t enough to get Lance excited but it was enough to make him willing to go, so, after a little bit of coaxing from Hunk, Lance finally put the ice cream back in the freezer, took a shower to get the smell of pathetic off his skin and began helping Hunk in the kitchen.

Early afternoon soon rolled into early evening, Lance desperately tried to keep up with the amount of dishes Hunk was using for the dinner, keeping the kitchen as clean as possible as he went. 

“Oven cooked cheese and bacon spaghetti bake.” Lance read over Hunk’s shoulder. Hunk possessed a huge recipe book filled with his family's recipes that his mum had given him just before the pair left for college. Lance had tried nearly every single dish in this book and he honestly could not pick a favourite, each were bursting with flavour and filled with the love you only get from good home cooking.

“Yep. This is one of Grandma’s favourites.” Hunk smirked. “Since Pidge is such a picky eater and because we’re going out later, I thought it was probably best not to give us any gut rearranging dishes.”

“Well I’m not complaining. I don’t know what you do to your spaghetti, Hunk, but even Mama can’t do homemade pasta as good as you.” Lance smiled, wrapping his arms around Hunk’s shoulders as Hunk began rolling out his pasta dough into as thin as possible.

“Do you think the house is tidy enough to be having guests?” Hunk wondered. “I haven’t done my laundry for a few days.”

Lance smirked in return. “It’s fine. I’ll give the living room another once over but it’s not like they’re going to go bursting into your bedroom demanding an empty laundry basket.”

After another squeeze to Hunk’s shoulder, Lance got back to the living room and tidied some things away. They never really made a lot of mess, you had to own a lot of things in order to get a place messy and the pair of them, while not being big collectors anyway, were stoney broke and their money was more often spent on other things then stuff that could be thrown around messily in their living room.

He gave a few surfaces a wipe down, including the small dining table that Hunk and Lance barely used themselves.

Before too long, the delicious smell of cooked cheese and smoked bacon filled the entire home and it wasn’t long after that when a knock came at the front door.

“Sup nerd?” Pidge suddenly entered the living room before Lance could even go to let her in. “Hunk gave me the spare key a couple weeks back so I let us in. What’s cooking?”

“You should go ask the chef.” Lance smirked, reaching forward and plucking the spare key from Pidge’s tiny little fingers. No way was she being allowed to keep that, what if she wondered in when Lance was naked or something? What if he wasn’t alone naked? Yikes. Lance didn’t mind privacy all the time, but from Pidge, he wanted all of it.

Allura wondered in not a moment later, obviously stopped in the hallway to strip from her shoes and coat. She glided up to Lance and enveloped him on a tight hug that Lance felt in his bones.

“Lance, I feel like I’ve barely seen you this last week. I have missed you terribly.” Allura smiled into his neck.

“Finally realised your true feelings for me, have you, Princess?”

“Lance, I will go home and get ready by myself.” Allura laughed but she tightened the hug and they both knew the other was just teasing. 

“You guys have amazing timing.” Hunk suddenly came out of the kitchen, over gloves over his hands and a big smile plastered over his face. “Dinner is served.”

Pidge chirped like a happy cheetah from the kitchen before rushing back into the living room, armed with knives and forks for everyone. 

The trio set the table while Hunk plated up and before too long they sat happily eating their delicious food, swapping stories and jokes about things that had happened in the time they’d all been apart recently. 

Dinner was an obvious hit, as was dessert, which Lance very selflessly gave up his Ben and Jerrys to share with his friends. They chilled for a while longer, talking animately before it was time to start getting ready and Lance was immediately put to work.

It wasn’t often that Lance was given free reign over Allura’s beautiful hair since she was pretty talented at styling it herself but Lance loved to practice braids and styles whenever he got the chance. He’d learnt a lot from his sister Marie growing up who had basically forced Lance to learn how to properly style hair since she was hopeless at it herself. 

There was also the fact that when Marie was 16, and Lance was 14, Marie was too busy doing her make-up and didn’t have enough time to do both by herself so Lance would do her hair while she worked on her face. It was a good way to bond, to talk about things they never would have otherwise. Sometimes it surprised Lance how close he and his sister really were, that he would talk to Marie about literally anything and not have to fear judgement. Well… He could fear her laughing at him and calling him a doofus but that wasn’t the kind of judgment that made him off put speaking with her.

It also surprised Lance how much Allura really did remind him of his sister, he thought about it often, mostly when Allura smiled mischievously when she had something up her sleeve. Allura had a terrible poker face, she always gave away all of her trump cards so early in the game. So much like Marie.

“Wow, Lance.” Pidge looked a little surprised as they walked over from their chat with Hunk and stared at Lance’s fancy work. “Where did you learn that?”

“Facebook tutorials.” Lance shrugged. “It’s a bit messier than it should be but I kind of prefer it, Allura might be a princess but she doesn’t need her hair pulled so tight it hurts her scalp like one.”

Pidge smiled and looked for a few more minutes as Lance finished off the hair and gave Allura a mirror to look.

“Wow!” She immediately gasped. The hair did look beautiful, with a square braid going over her head like a crown in a loose format and the rest of her hair pinned back into a hoop skirt looking fashion at the back of her head. Lance didn’t know names of her hairstyles! Or how to describe them! He just mixed and matched aspects of tutorials he liked to watch to make his own thing.

“It’s a bit fancy for a party.” Lance suddenly blushed. “You can take it out if you want, I just got a bit carried away.”

“No no!” Allura jumped away as if scorned, hands above her head to protect her hair. “I love it. I want to wear it like this.”

Lance chuckled as Allura immediately ran and grabbed her make up bag that she had brought with her when she arrived and got to work immediately.

“So…” Pidge suddenly scooted across the floor till their shoulder pressed against Lance’s arm. “Allura’s hair looked really nice.”

“It did.”

“Don’t suppose…” Pidge gulped.

Lance turned down to smirk at them, he knew what they wanted but he wanted to hear the words.

“Well… I mean, if you really want to, I suppose I could let you mess around with my hair.” Pidge rushed out. “So long as you don’t make it messy and oily. I only just washed it before coming here.”

“Pidge…” Lance smirked. “Did you  _ want _ me to do your hair?”

“Well, I mean, if you want to, I won’t stop you, you look like you need something to keep your hands busy then so be it, I suppose you can borrow my hair.”

“Oh no.” Lance acted up dramatically. “I’m fine. I can just get to work on my make up with Allura to keep me busy, if it’d make you uncomfortable then-”

“Lance.” Pidge suddenly growled, reaching up and tugging at Lance’s sleeve. “You can do my hair, it’s no problem.”

“Oh but Pidge-”

“Lance!” The small ball of anger yelled a bit more forcefully. “Do my hair!”

“Oh so you want me to?”

Pidge blushed deep and hard, looking down at the floor as if they were ashamed in their behaviour and mumbled.

“Pardon? Sorry, Pidge, I didn’t hear you.”

“Yes!” Pidge snapped. “Now can you please just do my hair?”

“Why of course, young Pigeon, please, take a seat. The master is in.” Lance snorted.

Although it got to a rough start, Pidge complaining any time Lance even breathed on their hair, eventually he managed to get the brush through and work out the small knots that had come through since Pidge had dried their hair.

Lance wasn’t going to do something fancy or super “girly”, he knew Pidge wouldn’t appreciate that, plus the fact that it wouldn’t suit the outfit Pidge was wearing which was the same every time they went out. Black skinny jeans, black vest and a green plaid shirt.

Lance got to work, testing a few styles and looks before he finally settled on a backcombed high fringe look, kinda like Elvis Presley, but more combed back since Pidge had fairly longer hair than the look usually called for.

After he was finish, Lance stepped away and bowed at his work, allowing Pidge to jump up and run to the bathroom to get a proper look rather than use Lance’s tiny mirror which had been perfectly fine for Allura the ungrateful gremlin!

“Oh wow.” A surprised voice came from the bathroom. “Oh wow. Oh wow.”

“I’m going to assume they like it?” Lance smiled slightly nervously. He would be very embarrassed if Pidge came back and demanded he fix their hair.

“That’s a positive ‘oh wow’ no doubt.” Hunk winked from the corner. During all of this, Hunk had been cleaning the dishes before coming in and sitting down to relax since he didn’t need to get dressed for a little while.

The rest of the evening passed by without a problem. All four young adults got to work and before long all four were stood at the front door looking fresh to death. Well the other three were for sure, Lance was still feeling a little bit down and that had gotten worse during his dressing as he remembered his favourite shirt had actually gotten ripped after a particular incident from a few months ago.

Stupid Keith.

Lance never dressed nice for Keith’s visits ever again, Keith was lucky if Lance was ever wearing more than just his dressing gown. He wasn’t about to risk another one of his shirts to Keith and his frustration when buttons wouldn’t do as he commanded. It was funny though, Lance couldn’t help but kiss the frustration lines on Keith’s face when that happened until finally Keith caved in and just yanked the shirt apart and threw it away, giving it to Lance rough and animalistic just like he liked it.

That thought sank Lance even further without him meaning to. He’d been trying not to think of Keith but it was kind of difficult when Keith always rattled around Lance’s mind, a frequent visitor, he basically lived in Lance’s conscious thoughts since he was there basically 24/7.

Lance tried his best to hide his sudden slump as the foursome left the flat, Lance and Hunk both bringing their keys since the outcome of who was going to stay out longer was up in the ear. Usually when the pair went out Lance would bring his own set of keys if he was on the pull, and he definitely wanted to give the guys the impression that Lance was ready to get back to normality, and who knows, maybe he would pull. He had no idea. Maybe some pretty little thing could convince him. 

Probably not though. Lance was moping after all.

It didn’t take long for the pair to reach the party, and surprisingly it happened to be the same house as their welcome party back in September.

“This house is like party central.” Allura explained. “They host pre drinks pretty much every night during the week for the third and fourth years who have their id’s… and the few seconds years who have fake ids. Then on Friday and Saturday’s they do huge house parties that go on all the way till the morning.”

“I swear this was the quiet house last year.” Hunk laughed.

“New sorority leaders.” Allura smiled. “Party animals.”

“Ahh.” Hunk chuckled in understanding as the four entered and began making their way through the crowd, it wasn’t as packed as that first night but it still wasn’t exactly dead. It just had some more breathing room. 

They found a space by the corner of the stairs in the hallway and each made a plan. Hunk and Allura were going to go catch up with some friends at the party really quickly then come back and Pidge was going to harass the DJ and get some songs added to the playlist that they could actually enjoy since the song right at that second was, in her words, “if you recorded the noises a dog made halfway through it having a shit.”

The elder pair walked off with a nod and Pidge went to drag Lance with them but Lance couldn’t help but pull away from the touch.

“Sorry.” He mumbled immediately, he hadn’t meant to pull away from them like that but he still didn’t want to be touched right now.

“Come on, Lance.” Pidge smiled understandingly at Lance. “I was gonna put Kaci Battaglia on just for you. Guaranteed to get the shots going. You don’t wanna miss everyone doing body shots right? ”

Lance tried to give Pidge a reassuring smile, to show that he was okay. “Go ahead, I’ll catch up, I’m just going to find myself something to drink.”

Pidge nodded but Lance could see her smile turn to worry as he began to step forward in search of the kitchen, which thankfully wasn't too difficult, just follow the drunk people, as Lance got closer and closer to the kitchen people at the party were getting drunker and drunker. 

He finally entered and grabbed himself a cup from the counter before going over to the alcohol cabinet and fixing himself and drink. Lance wasn't feeling much in the “I want to be sober” mood so he rationed his drunk 20% lemonade and 80% vodka.

He took a sip and immediately a whole body shiver raked through him. 

Perfect.

He made his way back through the living room and out into the hallway where he found Hunk and Allura, both with their own drinks in their hands talking seriously into one another's ears.

“What's up guys?” Lance sighed as he reached them. “Party not cool enough for you?”

Hunk oddly enough looked away guiltily as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have and Allura looked pretty sheepish herself.

“What?” Lance frowned in confusion. “Why are you two acting like the twins after they’ve been caught stealing food from the kitchen?”

Hunk pouted and pulled Lance closer towards the pair, since the music was loud Hunk leaned over slightly and immediately starting running his mouth.

“I’m sorry, Lance, the whole reason I brought you to this party was to get your mind of him but I didn’t realise he was going to be here, and I definitely didn’t realise he’d be… well, I don’t know the word, flaunting, I don’t know, I’m so sorry, Lance, we can go if you want, you don’t have to stay, I wouldn’t expect you to after-”

“Hunk!” Lance called. “Buddy, I have no idea what you’re going on about.”

“Keith is here.” Allura clarified. “I didn’t think he would be but… He’s in the living room.”

“O-Oh.” Lance blinked in surprise. Not really sure how to react, other than pulling his drink to his lips and taking a large gulp that sent little razor blades down into his stomach. “Well. Oh well. It’s not like he can’t be here.”

“But La-”

“I’m going to go dance.” Lance tried to let his smile fill as much of his face, but in all honesty he was desperate to get away and put proof to his friends words. So without even waiting for a reply he twisted on his heel and speed walked back into the living room. 

It didn’t take long to spot him, in fact, what was probably more surprising was that Lance hadn’t noticed him before since Keith seemed to be taking a lot of attention from the room.

Snuggled up into some random guy’s chest.

Lance gulped as he walked a little closer, careful not to be seen. Lance watched as the random guy with Keith, who was just a little too tall, a little too thin and a little too… Not good enough for someone like Keith! His hair too dark, his skin too light, his clothes too tight, his smile too wide. What did someone like that think he was doing with someone like Keith?

The guy, who Lance decided to name asshole for future reference, layered kisses up and down Keith’s face, going up across his forehead, down to his chin and along his jaw. Even from here Lance could see the tongue poking out from between his lips, lapping at Keith’s face like a dog.

Keith didn’t even like kisses like that! He hated wet kisses even though he was a wet kisser himself and he hated the feeling of someone’s tongue on his skin. So why was he just okay with it now? This random asshole sliding up and down his face as if he was bathing him.

Back in the day, when Keith and Lance were together, he would forcibly push Lance away with a growl of disgust as he wiped at his face if Lance even thought about getting his tongue involved anywhere that wasn’t down Keith’s throat. Obviously, after that, Lance started doing it on purpose. Keith never came to like the feeling but he learnt to accept it pretty quickly when wet licks turned to bites and bites turned to rough fucking while trying to keep quiet so Lance’s mother didn’t hear them from downstairs.

“Fuck.” Lance growled turning away to face the opposite direction, he was just getting himself into a rut thinking about this stuff.

He just had to stop this, he was the one who chose to broke their arrangement off in the first place, because it was hurting him. It might hurt now but with a little time he'd be able to get over Keith again and he can start by finding himself a nice rebound or something.

But as Lance scanned his eyes across the room, his eyes kept drawing back to Keith in the corner, the pair had upgraded their making out now where Keith was sat on the table, legs tied around the assholes waist and hands pulling at his hair as the big asshole continued to layer wet kisses down Keith's neck and along his collarbone.

Lance could just imagine the noises Keith was making now, soft little pants, gentle whispers under his breath. Keith seemed to be taking the role of the submissive right now, letting the other guy do what he wanted to him and that didn't sit well with Lance. Keith was never the submissive! Not with other guys! The only person who fucked Keith was Lance! What was he now going to just let other guys take that role?

Now that he and Lance were done he’s just gone and decided that he's gonna let other guys fuck him? Let them touch the places that Lance's touched?

Lance could feel his anger rising and rising. He had to get away. Every second was another thing he didn’t want to see, Keith tracing his hands underneath the asshole’s shirt scratching along his lower back, curling his spine so his chest pressed tight against him. How was this even allowed?! They were basically fucking in front of all of these people! Was no one going to stop them?!

_ Calm down, Lance. Calm down. Just leave. Get away from it. You’re just making yourself upset.  _ Staring at your ex, who you’re totally hung up on, while he was hooking up with someone else is not what any psychologist would call healthy.

Lance snarled again, downed the rest of his drink in one large gulp and threw the cup down to the floor before he stormed off to the back end of the living room where he wouldn’t have Keith and the asshole in his sights, without even looking he slammed himself down on one of the couches and crossed his arms like a spoilt child.

It wasn't fair. Why couldn't Lance just stop being so… Lance? He fell too fast. Got his hopes up. Convinced himself there was something more there. Now, he’s the only one who’s hurting, he’s the stupid one who played with fire and got fucking roasted at 200 degrees for 45 minutes, turning frequently.

Lance was so angry, he didn't even notice when a girl on the other end of the couch turned to assess him, looking at him with worry and curiosity, before shifting from the arm of the chair and scooting closer to him till her shoulder brushed against his.

Lance turned at the touch and was surprised to see the beautiful girl smiling reassuringly at him. She was dressed in a blue pantsuit dotted with white seashells, her hair slithered down in silver ringlets passed her shoulders.

Maybe it was just Lance’s drink starting to do some damage to his mind but she kind of looked like a queen. 

“Hi there.” She smiled.

“.... Hey?” Lance gulped. He didn't want to be rude, but he also didn't want to talk either.

“Looks like someone's not enjoying the party.” She smiled but her tone didn't give off that she was being teasing or rude. Just stating a fact. In her hand she held a red cup which she offered over to him. “It’s vodka with a double shot of coke. No time for weak mixers in this house.”

Lance, against his better judgment took the cup and took a long swig. Then he took another one. And another. Till the cup was actually empty.

“Hmm… Guess I’ll get another one then.” The girl laughed but she didn’t seem angry that Lance had just drank a pretty much full cup of a drink that wasn’t his.

“Boy problems?” The girl smiled kind heartedly at Lance.

Lance blinked in surprise, was it really that obvious? He thought the need to ask.

“It's not obvious.” She shrugged. “I'm just a good judge of character and you look like a sweet boy with a broken soul.”

“Poetic. Maybe you should join the spoken poetry club.” Lance muttered sarcastically.

“I have and I'd recommend it. We have meetings on Thursdays where we all share our work for the week. It's a lot of fun.”

Lance gulped. He'd made a joke, not really expecting the girl to y'know knock him back a bit. But she hadn't said it maliciously, just honestly.

“Well fine. You're right. I am having some boy problems.” Lance caved, he could almost feel the alcohol reaching his blood stream and loosening his lips.

“Wanna talk about it?” The beautiful queen smiled sweetly. “They say complaining to drunk strangers is like two years of therapy.”

“There's not really all that much to talk about now.” Lance whispered. 

“Try me.”

Lance sighed as he pressed himself further into the couch and thus further into the girls vicinity so he only had to speak in a loud whisper. Talking to a stranger was better than talking to Hunk or Pidge. At least a stranger would be unbiased and tell him straight.

“It's over now.” Lance gulped, trying to figure out the right words. “It's been over for a couple of years but… We reconnected and I just thought that something was still there, even if I didn't want to push it, it was a comfort to think something was there y’know. Then when it wasn't it was more of a heart break.”

“Oh no.” The girl gasped. “A reopened wound. They’re the worst ones.”

Lance nodded.

“So this boy… When was the last time you saw him?”

“He’s here.” Lance mumbled. “Making out with some guy over there I think.”

Lance pointed loosely to the other side of the room, but he couldn’t see the pair from him so he wasn't sure if they were still there. Maybe they’d moved their antics to upstairs when Lance hadn’t been looking and were now having their way with each other.

“Does he know you're here?”

“I don't think so.” Lance shrugged. “I doubt he cares whether or not I am.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.” The girl smiled. “He’s human like you remember, if you once cared for each other then I’m sure those feelings are in him somewhere too. Who knows, maybe he’s hurting just like you right now.”

“Doubtful.” Lance snorted. “He moved on pretty quick.”

“Are you not familiar with rebounds?” 

“Well… Yeah, bu-”

“You telling me you wouldn’t pounce on the first person who gave you what you really need right now. You’re just upset that he rebounded first, which is totally normal I’m not slating you for it, but it just means you have to do the same thing. Find something to replace the pain your feeling, because moping is not fun especially on your own with only the comfort of a random stranger.”

The two fell into silence as Lance just soaked up everything the girl had said. Lance supposed, in a way, she was right. Not that Lance was feeling the same thing but that it was probably just the fact that Lance had seen Keith move on first that he felt… Jealous. Jealous that he couldn’t find someone right now.

“What’s your name by the way?” Lance gulped, buzzed or not he was starting to feel awkward about sharing this stuff with a stranger, and the fact that she had basically just schooled his ass.

“They call me Plaxum.”

“Why?”

“Why do they call me Plaxum?” The girl laughed in surprise.

Lance looked down at his hands. “Yeah, I didn’t mean to say why. That was stupid.”

Plaxum giggled. “It’s okay. You’re cute, I’m sure I can find it in myself to forgive you. So come on, tell me more of this boy of yours. What’s he like?”

“Why are you so interested?” Lance chuckled back in surprise, Plaxum actually was starting to remind him of his mother, the way she kept shifting the conversation back and knew exactly how to prod information out of Lance so easily. It actually helped to get Lance out of his mood and actually made him feel a lot more at ease and happier.

“Call me curious.”

“I thought you said your name was Plaxum.”

“Oh so you’re funny!” She laughed and smacked gently at Lance’s arm. “Come on funny man, tell me what I wanna hear.”

Lance was about to cave and give her the information she was asking for when suddenly, a shadow cast over the pair of them and Lance looked up to see a very red face, dishevelled mess named Keith Kogane towering over them.

“Lance.” Keith growled. “What are you doing here?”

“Umm.” Lance coughed in surprise, cowering back into the couch and into Plaxum’s chest as a silent plea for protection, Keith had the look on his face that said he was looking for a fight. “I’m just here with the guys, they are around… Somewhere.”

Keith sneered, unimpressed and disbelieving. “And, who is this?”

Lance turned to Plaxum who was looking down at him in slight worry. Lance let out a sigh before leaning forward again and taking a bite of his courage sandwich.

“Plaxum this is Keith.” Lance gulped, not even courageous enough to look Keith in the eye… Maybe he didn’t take a bit enough bite. “Keith. Plaxum.”

“Pleasure.” Plaxum smiled. “Are you one of Lance’s friends?”

Keith snorted and rolled his eyes in amusement, but Lance could feel Keith’s angry aura spilling out of his every pore and clogging Lance’s. “Sure. Let’s go with that. So, you two are into each other?”

Plaxum blinked in surprise. “Wha-”

“You know he’s bi right, and let me tell you he fits the role of receiver better than he’d ever fit whatever role you’re imagining him.” Keith hissed, throwing his head back to down the rest of his drink, that Lance hadn’t even noticed because if he had he might’ve stole it because he definitely didn’t want to remember this, before dropping the plastic cup to the floor. “Not to cause drama, I just thought I’d let you know so you didn’t get your hopes up.”

“K-Keith!” Lance gawped, recoiling in on himself.

“Lance wasn’t made to date girls, he’s too good at taking dick for that.” Keith snorted.

Lance jumped to his feet, his cheeks blazing bright red, how dare Keith? How dare he?

“Keith. Back off, man!” Lance snapped. “Go find your little boy toy you were clinging to earlier, I don’t need this shit from you right now.”

“So you’ve had your fill now, huh?” Keith laughed. “Got everything you wanted out of me and now you’re just moving on. That’s so fucking like you, Lance.”

“Keith, eno-”

“All you do is use people, Lance. Use them for what they can give you and then move on without a second glance.”

“That’s no-”

“I don’t think you should be talking to him like that.” Plaxum suddenly called out, jumping to her feet as well and leaning into Lance’s space, curling one arm around his hips. “We were having a lovely conversation before you turned up and you’re just ruining it, so why don’t you walk on?”

“Please. I’m just warning you. I’m doing you a favour. Lance will never be with a girl ever again.” Keith smirked as he leaned forward and traced one of his nails down Lance’s face from temple to chin. “I made sure of that.”

As Keith pulled back again, Plaxum turned and gave Lance a  _ look _ and Lance watched as realisation suddenly dawned on her face. If glances could talk, Lance knew that Plaxum had worked it all out. That this was the boy Lance had fallen for, that this was the reopened wound. This was the pain he needed to move on from.

Or maybe she hadn’t worked it out, because Plaxum just shrugged before leaning into Lance’s space more and started mouthing her lips against his ear. Normally, Lance would have pulled back but he was too shocked to move and the expression on Keith’s face was like thunder, watching the way Lance swallowed his nerves and tried to twist over to face Plaxum properly.

“I find it hot.” Plaxum suddenly purred. “I like the type of guy who’s willing to experiment, who’s open minded. I think we should get to know each other better, Lance.”

Lance went to swallow again but before he could he was suddenly ripped away from Plaxum’s teasing lips and thrown over a broad shoulder very ungracefully.

“I disagree. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be borrowing him for a second.” Keith suddenly snapped from beneath him.

Lance had no time to protest before Keith was suddenly marching across the living room and up the stairs, all he could do was cling for dear life and try not to move too much out of fear that Keith would drop him down the stairs. Well, Keith could do that anyway if he wanted but Lance wasn’t going down without a fight so clenched his grip harder.

Not a moment later, Keith kicked open one of the houses bedroom doors and waltzed right in, closing and locking it behind him, growling when he had to take one hand from around Lance to use both hands to properly lock the door.

“I don’t see what you’re getting so mad about.” Lance allowed himself to be carried into the bedroom before being thrown roughly onto the bed. 

“She was all over you!” Keith snapped. “I’m helping you, you’re not even dating and she’s acting like that, excuse me if you can’t see the massive embroidered A on her chest. She’d never settle down with anyone.”

“What on earth does it have to do with you?” Lance jumped up from the bed and pushed at Keith’s shoulder’s. “You’re right, no, I’m not dating her but it’s none of your business.”

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt!” Keith snapped. “And that’s a classic man eater right there.”

Lance raised his hands up to the sky and growled, his residual anger from earlier clearly hadn’t gone away because he was never this quick to go from casual to absolutely fucking livid. “I don’t care, Keith!”

“You want something monogamous, she won’t give that to you.”

“So she’s no different from you then?” Lance threw a soft punch but Keith immediately caught it and dropped Lance’s hand back down like it was nothing.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, this is all a bit rich coming from you. The guy who's been sleeping with anyone who asked for the past few months, were you able to fit your other fuck buddies around the side of me?”

“Sleeping with?” Keith snarled, stepping forward and caging Lance between his chest and the bed. “How dare you, Lance? I haven’t slept with anyone except you! You made your feelings very clear from the beginning, casual yeah but monogamous, and I stuck to that. I knew from that day I told you about my date that you weren’t comfortable with it, so I cancelled that date and haven’t been with anyone else since.”

“That’s a lie!” Lance pushed back again, harder this time, he could feel the alcohol in his system tempting to do something he’d regret. Punch Keith, teach him a lesson, throw him on the bed and show that you have just as much power as he does. “I saw you at that party with that other guy. The party you ditched me to go to and then asked  _ me _ to pick you up. Why would you ask me? You made it clear that we were fuck buddies not friends!”

“We were friends!” Keith snapped. “You wanted to be all friendly friendly for Shiro and the rest of the group and I have never got in the way of that.”

“Then why are you always trying to start a fight?”

“Because you’re insufferable!”

“If I’m so insufferable then leave me alone! Don’t fucking talk to me, don’t fucking approach me when I’m talking to other people, just leave me the fuck alone, Keith!” Lance’s voice broke half way through speaking and all of a sudden he felt tears rush to his eyes.

The two stopped. Pressed against each other’s chests, panting heavy. Lance tried so hard to stop the tears from coming but unfortunately one or two managed to slip through. Either Keith pretended he didn’t see it or he just didn’t care as Lance quickly wiped them away with a soft whimper.

“I’m sorry.” Keith suddenly whispered. “I was really out of line tonight. It’s none of my business. I’ll go apologise to that girl as well.”

“Thanks.” Lance whispered back.

Thankfully after that, Keith took a few steps back and Lance finally felt okay to breathe easy, but he was frozen in one spot under Keith’s careful eyes.

“Let’s sit.” Keith whispered. “We’ll calm down and then we can both go back to the party.”

Lance nodded, even though his brain was telling him to get the fuck out of there pronto. The pair sat beside each other on the bed, Keith even laying down onto his back and with his hands curved behind his head.

“So… I guess it didn’t take you very long to move on then.” Keith sighed from beside him. 

Lance didn’t answer.

“Why did you even agree in the first place to the arrangement?”

Lance shrugged.

“Was it to forget how much of a chicken shit you are when it comes to asking out the person that you like?” Keith mumbled, that air of bitterness returning to his tone quite quickly even though he had been the one to apologise and suggest calming down.

Perhaps the hot headed raven haired god still had the fight left in him. But Lance wasn’t in the mood to fight, he was too tired. The alcohol in his system making him drowsy and all he wanted to do was sleep, and maybe cry just a little bit.

“... I suppose so. Maybe.” Lance whispered back in return. Lance was a chicken alright, he could never get the words out that he wanted to say. To tell Keith what he really wanted.

“Or was it some sort of confidence booster?” Keith growled warningly. “Y’know act like a bitch in bed and you might get a bitch into bed.”

“Keith. Enough.” Lance couldn’t even raise his voice anymore, his heavy heart made him want nothing more than to turn over and just roll himself off the bed and hopefully through the floorboards and down into hell. “God. My head is killing me.”

Keith sat up slowly and turned gently to face him before releasing another sigh. He gently pushed himself to his feet and headed towards the ensuite bathroom. “Hang on a second.”

Keith disappeared for a second out the room and as Lance craned his neck to watch he saw Keith standing by the sink in the bathroom, a minute or so past before he came back with a glass in his hands. “Come here. Drink some water.”

Lance did as he was told and sat up straight while Keith moved the glass to his lips and guided it till the water slowly dripped into Lance’s mouth. Lance suckled hungrily like a newborn until Keith tipped the glass back again and pulled the cup away. 

“You’ll hopefully feel a bit better soon, just don’t drink anymore tonight.” Keith mumbled. “We’ll stop talking about… everything. I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”

“Me neither.” Lance whimpered. “I’m so tired of fighting. I just want everything back to the way it was before.”

“Define  _ before _ .”

Lance looked into Keith’s eyes and gulped. “No offence. But before we met up again. Everything was so much easier when we weren’t talking. We’re so toxic together Keith.”

“... I can’t argue with you about that even if I wanted to.” Keith sighed. “It’s true. Nothing good comes from us being around each other.”

“Don’t you just hate it?” Lance suddenly looked down again and chuckled sadly into his lap. “How we cant even be civil towards each other? How everything has to be an argument? Why is that?”

“I- I’m not sure.” Keith gulped. “I guess… Maybe…”

“What?”

“Well. When two people care about each other so deeply, and things go wrong, and you want so desperately to return to the good times and yet no matter what you can’t get there… I suppose it causes some resentment.” Keith gulped. “When I look at you, I still remember our first kiss, our first time, and it makes me so angry, at you and myself, because I can’t forget the hurt. I can’t forget a single moment of anything.”

Lance gulped. “I- I didn’t expect you to say that.”

“What?” Keith exhaled in amusement. “You think I don’t have any feelings? I’ve been going to talk therapy for 7 years, Lance, I’ve learnt a few things about processing and understanding my own emotions. Not that I often put those techniques into practice but still.”

“I get what you mean though.” Lance nodded, he allowed himself a bit of weakness as he leaned over and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder. “I can’t just forget the past and it’s in moments that are just the two of us that I remember it the most. We can’t talk like we used to. Don’t joke like we used to. I hate that.”

“It’s like my emotions don’t know what they want, but I do know.” Keith gulped. “I don’t want to be hurt again, I don’t want to be in a relationship. So why am I still so… Bitter?”

“But why was it only then that it felt that way?” Lance whimpered.

“What do you mean?”

Lance shuffled, feeling suddenly a little hot about what he was about to reveal. “Well… It never felt that way when we fucked.”

“O-Oh?”

“When we were fucking there was nothing else. No expectations. No memory of the past. I just wanted you and you completely.” Lance whimpered, honesty was a bit difficult in this context. “I never felt anger towards how things worked out, how things were between us, when we fucked I knew where we stood.”

“I-” Keith coughed awkwardly. “I know what you mean. I always wondered how our arrangement could work so well when we always argue when we’re with the group. It never made any sense.”

Lance nodded, and all of a sudden his memories of the last few months came rushing back to him. Memories of Keith. In Lance’s bedroom. Doing things that would’ve made their younger selves blush. Pressing each other against walls, pinning each other to the bed, the floor, giving each other exactly what the other wanted.

Lance gulped and crossed his legs to try and hide his growing interest.

“It’s like I’m a different person.” Keith gulped. “When we hang out, I’m cruel, harsh. I say things that I don’t mean but… When we sleep together I feel… Kinder. Softer. I want to impress you and make you satisfied.”

“Yeah.”

“Everything I do is to make sure that you’re enjoying yourself, that you are having the better time. I could literally eat you out for hours and not once think about myself. I wanted to learn every part of your body just so I knew what buttons to press to make you absolutely lose your mind.”

“Keith-”

This was not helping Lance’s little problem, in fact that little problem was suddenly a very big problem, Lance’s brain was shouting at him for one thing. Like a chant inside his own ears begging for  _ Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. _

“Sorry.” Keith suddenly cupped his hands into his face. “I shouldn’t be talking about that. That’s a bit NSFW for a quiet conversation.”

“I-” Lance gulped, twisting his body to one side and cautiously pressing his hand into the small of Keith’s back. “I shouldn’t have- I should never have ended it.”

“It’s fine.” Keith smiled, clearly not getting Lance’s message. “It had to happen.”

“It was too soon.”

“Lance, I-”

“Keith.” Lance reached forward once more and softly trailed a finger on Keith’s thigh before venturing up and softly rubbing the spot that Lance was hungry for. “I don’t want it to end yet. I want to do so many more things with you.”

Keith reached forward and lifted Lance’s hand, returning it back to his own lap before curving an arm around Lance’s waist.

“Come on. Lance. Don’t get me wrong, I want to, but you were right. I don’t want to get in the way of the girl you like.” Keith smiled, almost sadly, Lance felt soft fingers brushing up and down his back. “I want us to move past this, be friends, and if that’s the way to do it then I will happily.”

“No Keith. There is no girl.” Lance whined, moving his hand back again but now to paw pathetically at Keith’s chest. “I made it up.”

“Wait, what?”

“Keith. Fuck me. I need you.” Lance whispered, pushing his head up into Keith’s crook and running his lips down his neck. “Forget what I said the other day. I need you inside me now. Want you to make me cum. Want to feel you.”

“Lance.” Keith whispered warningly, his grip on Lance’s back tightening. “You're too drunk.”

“I'm sober enough to know that I've never wanted you to fuck me more in my entire life than I do right now.”

“Lance, I-”

“Please, Keith. Please.” Lance whined. “Just one last time. I’m not ready for this to end. You always make me feel so good. Know exactly what to do. You’re like a drug to me. One more time. One more time. Please.”

Lance must have said the right thing as very slowly Keith began responding to Lance’s touch, running his hands down to cup underneath Lance’s ass and hoisted him up from the bed and over onto his lap.

Lance immediately wrapped his legs around Keith's waist and lets out a high pitched keel as he feels his growing erection rub against Keith's. 

“If I’d known last time was the last time, I would’ve done so many things different.” Keith whispered. “I would’ve stayed longer. Would’ve let you fuck me full then turned on you, pressed you into the bed, teased you till you were begging for more.”

Lance began to slowly rut against Keith’s lap but before he could start to feel the benefits, Keith stilled his actions with his strong grip and roughly shoved his head in the crook of Lance’s neck, sucking and kissing at spots until Lance could practically feel the bruises popping up.  

“Please Keith. Just do it.” Lance cried out. “Once more. Just once. Let me be yours one more time.”

“... Alright.” Keith whispered before bringing his lips up to Lance’s and finally pressing them together. 

The kiss was like electricity, it burnt Lance’s lips and mouth from the outside in, racing around his body in unpleasant shocks. Every part of the kiss felt wrong but Lance didn’t want to stop for even a second, he wanted to roll with it.

Getting to the next step definitely wasn’t ceremonious, and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, Lance didn’t even bother taking his clothes entirely off, just undid his own zipper and pulled his trousers and boxers half way down his thighs. He broke the kiss with Keith for just a minute to spit grossly on his own fingers and circled his way down to his rim.

Keith, most likely blissfully unaware of Lance’s actions, reached up and ran his fingers through Lance’s hair, stroked down his back as Lance relaxed his muscles the best as he could before pistoning one of his long slender fingers past his rim and inside. It was tight, the spit not really giving enough give to the skin and it made Lance groan out in discomfort and slight pain. 

But he wanted this so much, he wasn’t about to let something as stupid as lube get in the way of this, Lance reached up again with his other hand now and forced his fingers into Keith’s mouth who opened willingly before opening his eyes and watching Lance’s movements, Lance watched as Keith’s eyes followed his fingers down his back and towards his entrance, replacing one hand with the other, going straight in with two fingers. This time the pain was a little too much and Lance whimpered and twitched until he fell against Keith’s chest in a heap.

“That’s mine!” Keith snarled reaching behind and pulling Lance’s fingers away from himself, lifting them above his head. “You don’t touch that.”

“Please, Keith, hurry.” Lance whined, desperate to touch himself. He needed Keith in him like yesterday, the day before, the day before that. Every single day that he could have had it. Why did they only sleep together twice a week? Lance could’ve handled more. He would’ve done it every day till his hips locked and he couldn’t walk again. 

Keith gently scooped his hand beneath Lance and lifted the pair up before gently placing Lance down on his hands and knees on the bed, Lance threw his top half forward so his face pressed into the duvet and his ass danced enticingly in the air. 

“So desperate.” Keith whispered as he leaned in and bit down on Lance’s ass. “You really want it?”

“I do.” Lance whined. “Keith, come on, just get your dick inside me already.”

“Patience.” Keith smirked. “I have to prep you first, it’s a good thing I always bring some lube with me for occasions just like this.”

“Just like this? You didn’t even know I was coming.” Lance snarled back, kind of surprised how quick he was to snap at Keith’s fake words. “That lube was for someone else and you fucking know it.”

“Shh.” Keith whispered, pulling the lube from his back pocket and ripping the packet open before pouring it on his fingers. “Do you want to stop?”

“No, Keith.” Lance was getting more and more frustrated, why wouldn’t Keith just do it already? “Just do it now.”

Keith sighed, probably not a fan of Lance’s more aggressive approach tonight since usually Lance played the little role that he knew Keith liked, he played the bitch in heat, the desperate slut, the cock loving whore that Keith loved to degrade in any way he possibly could.

Still, he didn’t dislike it enough to stop cause just as Lance went to beg again, he felt fingers slowly glide past his rim and enter him. He was pretty sure it was two fingers but given how tight he was it might as well have been four because the burn Lance felt sliced down his body and had his toes squirming. Normally if the pain was this bad he pulled away and would ask Keith to slow down, but he wasn’t having it tonight, he would convince Keith he was ready. Tell him he wanted it. That it felt good. Even if that wasn’t true. 

Keith had barely gotten to the knuckle when Lance was begging for another finger already, desperately clawing at the sheets and pushing his hips back. 

Without a word, Keith pulled out and compiled to Lance’s request. Adding the finger that Lance desperately needed.

“Shit, Lance.” Keith groaned. “You’re really tight.”

“Yes.” Lance just purred back. “I want it rough tonight. Fuck me now! I want it to ache!”

“La-”

“ _ Please baby _ .”

Another sigh and Keith pulled his fingers out, Lance could hear the tell tale sounds of him pulling his zipper down and unwrapping the condom.

“ _ Come on. Come on. Come on _ .” Lance prayed as Keith continued to shift behind him before soothing fingers began to rub into his hips.

“Are you sure, Lance?” Keith whispered slowly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t want you to be gentle.” Lance quipped back. “Make it hurt Keith, I want to feel you for weeks.”

“Okay, baby.”

At last, Lance felt that familiar push against his rim, and that gentle thrust to try and break through that first contact. Keith grunted low and loud as he slipped through till his helmet sat nicely inside Lance.

“Oh fuck, Lance.” Keith’s grip tightened. “I could cum right now. You’re so tight.”

“Finally.” Lance purred, unable to stop himself from pushing his hips back into Keith, usually Keith could keep Lance pinned down enough where Lance would be unable to do this, but it seemed that he was either not ready for it or not caring enough as Lance shoved his hips backwards and took all of Keith’s length in one quite painful thrust.

“C-Careful, Lance.” Keith whimpered, only now trying to hold at Lance’s hips, but Lance didn’t give him the chance as he continued to canter backwards, the feeling of Keith’s thick length roughly pistoning in and out of him enough to have tears gather in his eyes. 

“ _ Oh god yes!”  _ Lance gasped out loudly when he aimed just exactly where he needed it but immediately Keith's hand covered his mouth to mask his moans.

“People will hear you downstairs.” Keith grunted through his own pleasure. “Be my quiet little slut tonight, okay?”

Lance nodded as best as he could but the pressure from Keith mixed with the large amount of alcohol burning through his system made his movements sloppy. 

“Lance.” Keith growled. “No one can fuck you like I can.”

Lance gasped as suddenly Keith angled himself up and began to deliver harsh blows to Lance's prostate. Keith leaned down so his front was flush against Lance’s back as Lance revelled in the pain and the pleasure, he definitely hadn’t been prepped enough and it definitely hurt but that was just adding to the sensations, like Lance needed it. He needed it to hurt, he needed his last time to be painful enough that he wouldn’t want to do it again, that he could remember the good times, he couldn’t remember the times when Keith went slow, worked him open fully because that just gave Lance temptation. Temptation to keep going, to keep-

Keith suddenly grabbed at Lance's face and twisted him to face him as best as he could. “Say it. Tell me how good I fuck you.”

“ _ So good. Ah, s-so good!”  _ Lance whined. “ _ Please Keith. Don’t stop. It’s so good.” _

“S-See?” Keith stuttered, slowing his thrusts to deliver them harder and more precise, exactly in the place that had Lance seeing stars. “You were made for this, Lance. Getting fucked rough. How is some girl gonna give you what only I can? Why would you ever want to stop this?”

“ _ F-F-Fuck Keith!”  _ Lance whimpered into the pillows followed by a number of unrecognisable words.

“Wh-What was that? Speak Lance. Use your words.” Keith grunted, still delivering rough pounds that almost threw Lance across the bed if he hadn’t been holding on with the sheer force.

_ “I love you.”  _ Lance suddenly cried out, his mind and his mouth the same organ.

_ “ _ W-What? _ ” _

_ “Fuck, I love you. Keep fucking me, please. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. Keith. Keith.” _

The two never spoke again, both too caught up in pleasure as the head board smacked against the wall with a thunderous clap every time. It briefly occured to Lance that all hopes of being quiet to not get caught were entirely out the window and it was likely the entire house now knew what they were doing, but Lance didn't care. Let them hear. Let them hear how Keith fills him so completely, knows exactly where to touch, knows what to say to have Lance praying for mercy. 

Let them hear Lance’s soul crying, desperate for the man he loves. Oh god, he said it. He used the words. He told Keith his feelings, how could he have been so stupid? Never had Lancer heard something more pathetic, confessing your feelings halfway through sex with your ex-fuck bucky in the middle of a party.

It was pathetic. Disgusting. Vile.

What had Lance been thinking? How could he cave so easily? Beg Keith to fuck him even though Lance had been the one to end it. How childish, ridiculous.

What felt like an eternity of self hatred later, Keith finally shuddered and pushed inside as deep as he could, his body twitching from pleasure. Lance felt a sudden cold chill completely overthrow him followed by the strong taste of vomit in his mouth. Keith paused for a second as he came before shifting to try and get his breath back.

“Wow.” Keith gasped. “That was amazing. Did you cum?”

Lance whimpered, the pain was starting to increase now but he wasn’t sure if it was from the lack of prep or from his own heart. “I have to go.”

Lance barely even waited for Keith to pull out of him before he pulled himself off and away, wincing hard. He made a grab for his clothes and threw them over his body, he was pretty sure his boxers were inside out but he was too tired to care. He just wanted to get out of here. As the seconds past, Lance started to feel more and more disgusted.

At what? You might ask. 

Himself.

Keith turned to him and watched him with confused eyes, he’d by this point turned onto his back on the bed with his arms stretched to cover the entire width of the bed. “Where are you going?”

“Home.” Lance mumbled as he began fumbling over to the door, he could feel the limp in his step but elected to ignore it. Lance didn't even bother with his shirt and jacket, just pulled up his trousers and grasped at the door handle. Shooting a sideways look back as he went. “Bye Keith.”

Quickly Lance threw open the door and shut it sharply behind him before taking off into a run as he rounded down the corridor and back down the stairs. Lance thought for a moment if he should find his friends before going home but the dripping feeling in his boxers made him scrap the idea and choose instead to get home as fast as possible and into a cold shower.

At least there he would be able to wipe off the regret and disgust he now felt. 


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is like Black Coffee. A little bitter, but ultimately a little heart warming.

Lance was the type of person who got homesick a lot, they weren’t lingering sensations like when he’d first started living independent from his family over a year ago, but they were frequent enough to spiral Lance’s mood at any given moment. Triggered by anything. Grocery shopping with Hunk, strolling down the snack food items, randomly stumbling upon a snack that triggers a certain memory. A green couch, his elder sister sat beside him, both giggling like the young teenagers they once were, talking about anything that came to mind, relevant or not. Girls, boys, school, scary puberty stories… Though that was mostly Marie trying to scare Lance with stories about male friends of hers who’s peepees (the McClain child version of dick that was strongly enforced by their mother) had fallen off when they hit puberty and they then grew another, better penis that fit their adult bodies.

Lance was a gullible 13 year old, and although he’d always laughed at Marie’s scary stories and told her that he didn’t believe them, a part of them at the time did. That made for a very interesting conversation with his mother when Lance was worried that his “old peepee hadn’t fallen off yet.”

A story retold at every christmas.

Memories like that plagued Lance’s mind every day at university and normally he kept a good tight hold of them, didn’t allow them to have the same effect that they once had. Crippling him, making him sensitive, tearful, easily provoked and irritable. But, with everything going on with Keith, it was a break at home with his family that Lance needed more than anything in the world.

So, the morning following the party, Lance rose from his bed like a zombie having not slept a single wink and began the slow process of filling his suitcase and planning his ride home. There was a late afternoon bus that would take him across the state and if all was clear on the highways, he’d be able to hold his mama by this time tomorrow. 

He hadn’t planned on really telling anyone, Lance always went home for the holidays so it would be no surprise to anyone if one day he just packed up and left. Since the winter break had already started anyway and there were no pressing deadlines that Lance needed to worry about until he got back, he had no reason to stick around.

But, only half an hour into packing, a soft knock at his door signalled he’d not be able to scoot away as quietly as he’d hoped. 

“Come in.” Lance grumbled, it was the first time he’d spoken today and he’d not realised how dry his throat was until he’d basically croaked to the closed doors, his words not actually coming out very clearly.

A tic later, the door knob twisted and slowly opened, Hunk stepped through cautiously without saying a word, closing the door behind him and settling down on the edge of Lance’s bed that wasn’t currently covered in folded up clothes ready to be packed. 

“I brought you a glass of orange juice.” Hunk smiled softly. “I went to the shop earlier and brought some fresh oranges to make a cake later, since I had some spare I made some juice.”

Lance smiled softly, walking over and gratefully taking the cup from his hands, lifting it softly to his lips and taking a generous gulp. Hopefully the liquid would fix Lance’s dry throat so he didn’t sound like he’d been smoking 40 ciggies a day for 100 years. 

For a few minutes, neither boy spoke as Lance slowly glided back and forth around his room, grabbing things he’d know he’d need for the trip. Spare underwear. His robe. An extra pair of unopened headphones in case his current ones he was using broke on the way. Not that they would. Lance just wanted to be prepared. 

“Lance.” Hunk’s voice was soft as velvet, but quiet as if he was worried to speak. “I heard you come in last night.”

“Oh. You were already home?” Lance pretended to be surprise, he knew Hunk must have got home before him, one of the main problems with lying awake all night and never hearing the familiar front door open and shut. 

“Are you alright?” Hunk tilted his head, probably trying to scan Lance’s face for a true emotion that his verbal answer would contradict.

“Fine.” Lance smiled. “Just thought I’d go home today. I’ve booked the next two weeks from work anyway so it’ll be nice to get as much time at home as possible.”

“I understand that dude.” Hunk nodded in return. “... How was the party?”

Lance hoped that Hunk had missed the way his back stiffened for a second at the question before returning back to normal.

“It was good.” Lance flashed one of his winning smiles at his best friend. “I got talking to this girl at the party and we ended up getting along really well.”

Hunk raised one of his caterpillar eyebrows almost comically. “Oh really? Did you get her number?”

Lance chuckled softly to himself as he picked up the last few items of clothing from the bed and deposited them neatly in his suitcase. “It wasn’t like that. Just two drunk people talking about things.”

“I see.” Hunk mumbled. “Well… Do you want me to walk down with you to the bus station? I took the two weeks off work myself to get some of my next assignment finished, and I’m not going home myself till next week for a few days, so I’m free for the rest of the day.”

“It’s alright, man.” Lance smiled as he pulled the lid of suitcase over and (with a bit of strength) zipped the slightly overfilled suitcase until it was fully closed. “I’ve got to go into town to pick up a few extra Christmas presents for the twins anyway so I’ll be gone all day and then just get a coffee while I wait for the bus later.”

“Well… If you’re sure, I don’t mind joining you.”

“Nah. It’s no worries. I’m gonna go jump in the shower and then head off so I’ll see you when I get back?”

“Of course, dude.” Hunk smiled gently as he slowly stood to his feet and went to walk towards the door, but before he did so he reached back and caught Lance’s wrist, pulling him forward and into his large warm body into a tight hug. 

Lance didn’t want to talk, even think, about the events of last night with… Keith. But the hug Hunk gave him felt like 1000 words of softness and kindness, as if he knew everything just from a look into Lance’s tired eyes.

“Give your family my love.” Hunk smiled. “I’ll be coming to see them during the spring break. Whether you want me gatecrashing the McClain household or not.”

Lance carefully tucked his head into the crane of Hunk’s neck. “You’d never gatecrash.”

Soon enough though, the soft hug had to end and Lance reluctantly made good on his statement and headed to the shower where he spent an extra long amount of time staring at the wall, trying to convince his brain to think of nothing, just static, but that just cause every memory from last night to come flooding back.

Sweaty bodies. Unshed tears. “I love you.” A tighter grip. A soft gasp.

Filth. Lance’s was filthy and it didn’t matter how long he spent in the shower, when he finally clambered out, smelling fresh, he still felt… Dirty.

Too begin with, time passed like Lance was a spectator rather than the main event, he made his way into town, stopping off at a few shops to buy his siblings a few christmas gifts, he had to remember to buy his mother a bouquet of flowers when he reached the other end. Then he made his way towards the bus station and sat in a little cafe just beside his stop, his bus wasn’t for another hour and he still had to buy his ticket but for now he could just sit and relax, going over everything in his head.

He checked his phone and went through all the notifications that had been popping up during the day that he’d been actively ignoring. There were a few texts he’d received while he’d been out, a  _ See you when you get back, Loser _ from Pidge and a  _ Give the twins a squeeze from me, I don’t want them forgetting their big bro Hunk _ from the man himself. A few other messages as well, a friend from his course asking if Lance wanted to meet up to help each other with their assignment closer towards the end of winter break, an email from his university wishing him a happy holidays and a notification from Candy Crush telling him he hadn’t played in a while.

A while being well over a year now but Lance could never bring himself to delete the memory stealing app. 

Nothing from Keith… Which in all honesty was to be expected. What would Keith even say to him?

“Hi Lance. You’re a freak and you better stay a million miles away from me for the rest of our lives.”

Lance could really see him saying that. He wouldn’t be surprised if he did, Lance probably would if the tables were reversed. 

No.

Perhaps, if it had been Keith to confess something like that, Lance would not be angry. He’d in fact feel happiness like one he hadn’t felt for a long time.

But it was hopeful thinking like that which had pulled Lance into this trouble into the first place so he decided to do the one thing he needed to, push the beautiful, framed face of Keith Kogane out of his mind once and for all, thinking about everything would do no good but make Lance fall deeper and deeper into the pit he was currently trying to dig his way out of. 

So he stopped thinking about, he bought himself a hot chocolate, plugged in his headphones and drank it slowly as he tried to stop himself from shaking his hips in his chair to an old Shakira album he was currently into playing on repeat. After finishing his drink, he walked over to the bus station, bought his ticket and quickly boarded the empty bus that was already waiting even though it wasn’t taking off for another half an hour. He settled into his seat, his suitcase in the foot space in the chair next to him, this bus rarely ever carried that many passengers so he had no worries about taking up two seats instead of one. 

He was quite lucky really that there was a bus that took him all the way home to Colorado, dropping him off only a short walk away from his family home. So, Lance decided not to worry and settled into his seat comfortably as about half a dozen people began to trickle on to the bus. Before long, the doors shut and the bus took off on it’s long journey across the states. 

Lance closed his eyes, letting Shakira’s voice lullaby him to sleep, he was actually very tired after not sleeping so yesterday so he might as well just try and get the entire bus journey in as sleep time.

Which thankfully, other than a few bumps in the road and a few nightmares jostling Lance awake again every now again, he was able to mainly sleep for the entire journey until he started to recognise the streets and roads he was passing. A cafe he regularly attended in his teens with Hunk and Pidge, a theatre that he went to on his first date when he was 13 years old. 

Before too long, the bus pulled into its destination and the dozen passengers, including Lance, began to slowly clamber off and make their way onwards in their journey. Although Lance was in a rush to get home, he stopped off at his old favourite milkshake and grabbed his staple drink as a little reward to himself, he hadn’t eaten for the entire 15 hour bus journey, and since it was just past 8 in the morning, the shops were beginning to open. Besides, he deserved a little treat to warm up his still aching heart that didn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.

He walked into the shop and happily greeted the cashiers, some of which were familiar and greeted him in return. He ordered his favourite “raspberry mocha surprise” the surprise being the vanilla shot, and paid for it with his card before taking it and walking home. 

He hadn’t been home since August so it being nearly 4 months later was quite rare, usually Lance would try and make his way home at least every other month, but what with money being tight and him not really having as much as he’d like as it was, affording the $100 bus once every two months was too great an expense. Plus, it was time Lance got over his homesickness since he was technically an independent adult now.

He slowly walked his way down the straight road’s of his neighbourhood, his suitcase and plastic bags filled with presents in tow until he reached his own road, his family home in sight. He picked up the pace, throwing his cup in a sidewalk bin as he quick marched all the way to the end of his drive and looked up to the front door.

Catching eyes with his mother for the first time in months made Lance realise how much he really had been missing home. As he stood at the end of the McClain driveway, his mother stood waiting at the open door, arms outstretched, what else could Lance do? He threw down all his bags and sprinted as fast as he could the short path until he crashed into his shorter mother arms, even with the height difference Lance still felt tiny within her tight embrace and it took all of his will not to let all of emotions overtake him. So, rather than crying which he thought he would, he allowed the soft sniffles and whimpers as he tucked his head into his mother's neck, breathing in the scent of him.

Neither moved for a good few minutes, just enjoying being together again, but of course moments like those had to come to an end. With a gentle whack against the head from his mother, Lance pulled back with a dopey yet sad smile as he listened to her reprimand him for not giving her more warning that he was coming back today. With a relieved chuckle, Lance apologised and walked back to his things on the end of the lawn and brought them back inside.

Being at home wasn’t the break Lance had really been expecting, but he  _ had  _ been expecting too much, you can’t escape from one emotionally turbulent home to another and expect the other to be like a gush of fresh wind under Lance’s tired wings. 

Lance was relieved to find out his father was home from the hospital, but he was less relieved to find out that the hospital had followed him home. Hooked up to a dozen machines by a thousand wires, Diego McClain was a shadow of the man from Lance’s childhood that used to balance three children on his shoulders with another (usually Lance) clinging to his back for dear life. They would dance around the McClain living room, their home a broken mixture of English and Spanish, a house full of laughter.

Marie and Lance were the closest in age, with their only being a two year gap between them, Lance being 19 and Marie now edging closer and closer to 22 (“but not there yet!” as she would often yell). Alex was next at 16 and finally Javi rounding the corner to 13. The McClain siblings thought that would be it, that four was it, but nearly four years ago, before all the problems with Father McClain started, a surprise pregnancy led to the arrival of the two youngest of the McClains, Sophia and Georgio, bringing their total to 6. A loud and boisterous household indeed it would have been… If things had stayed the same. 

Now, in this house, laughter seemed like such a thing of the past, or rather, it felt like such a betrayal. To laugh was to betray the pain that truly went on within the McClain four walls. So, Lance knew, that he wasn’t stepping into the house for a break, or for fun holiday spirit, it was to make good on his promise to care and love his family.

Two weeks of caring went by in a flash, he managed to spend quality time with all his family, mostly the twins since he was mostly stuck on babysitting duty while his mother went to work, Marie would come round during the afternoons to care for their father before she went to her evening job down at one of the clubs downtown. Alex and Javi mainly kept to themselves, like ghosts, only participating with the family when it was strictly necessary to. It made Lance sad to see them both cluttle off to their joint bedroom every day after school without a single word to Lance when they came in. 

He’d tried to tempt the two brothers into coming down stairs and joining, not necessarily to help care for the twins, he’d pretty much got a system going. Just keep Sophia away from the stairs and Georgio away from the kitchen and both of them away from each other and things seemed to roll pretty smoothly. But, that wasn’t enough to convince Lance’s middle brothers into spending any time with him, he wanted to understand and he tried to, there was a lot of unspoken pain in this family, members that hid their insecurities and sadness because their problems seemed miniscule in the grand scheme of things, Lance understood that more than they probably knew.

No amount of coaxing helped. The boys never came down. Marie rarely left her father’s side. Mother was working extra hours while she could with Lance’s help at home. It made him feel guilty that he wasn’t here all the time, but then again when he wasn’t here his mother didn’t do such ridiculous working hours, and Lance was able to work himself and send what he could to his family to help them with whatever he could.

It seemed like within a blink of an eye, Lance was sat in his childhood bedroom, Christmas had been and gone and thankfully his mother had fulfilled his wish this year and not gotten him anything, packing his suitcase again ready for his trip back to college tomorrow. 

Lance sighed as he picked up a pile of t-shirts from the bed that his mother had washed this morning before she went to work and placed them tidily in his suitcase. Lance was unbelievably tired, it felt like he’d barely slept at all this entire trip. Not only was the babysitting and caring difficult but Lance’s dreams had recently been hijacked and twisted into nightmares that kept Lance awake at all hours of the night. Nightmares so familiar, flashed of purple eyes and jet black hair, thick leather gloves twisting around Lance’s neck, and not in the way Lance liked them doing it, squeezing tight, cutting off air supply until Lance woke every night with a jolt in a puddle of his own sweat. 

Lance slammed his suitcase shut in irritation, thankfully the suitcase shut a lot easier this time then when he’d packed it for the journey here what with the unloading of his family’s presents when he arrived. He zipped the suitcase and headed down the stairs to return to helping his mother, who had taken Lance’s final evening off work to spend time with him, the first time they’d really spent time together since that hug when Lance first arrived.

He headed into the living room and perched beside his mother on the couch, to his surprise, Alex was sat on one of the armchairs, the bright glare of his phone shining up into his face, and Javi was squeezed between his mother's side and the arm of the sofa, obviously sliding in next to her after she had taken her seat first. 

The twins lay transfixed on the television from the floor, some spanish cartoon his mother had introduced to them a while back that Lance recognised from his own childhood. 

When Lance sat down on the opposite end of the sofa, Alex looked up from his phone just for a second to snort out his nose. “Wow, Lance! You look like you’ve been hit by a truck.”

“Thanks bro.” Lance waved but in all honest his heart had picked up the pace that his brother had actually started a conversation for the first time since Lance’s return, even if it was an insult. “You’re too kind to your big brother.”

“You’re not big though.” Javi piped up next. “Just old.”

Lance screwed up his face in distaste, Lance was tall okay, he was happy with his 5” 10 inches, it wasn’t his fault that Marie and Papa were well over 6ft, Alex tickling the 6ft mark himself already and even Javi himself inching closer and closer to Lance’s ACCEPTABLE height as the months were getting on even at his age.

“Quiet you!” Lance hissed. “Why would I want to be a massive green giant like Marie? I’m at the perfect height thank you very much.”

“What did you just call me?” A more feminine voice fluttered into the room, heading right towards Lance before roughly pinching at his cheeks. “Green giant?”

Lance squeeled in pain, causing the twins to turn back and stare at him in confusion. “Mama! Mama, help! Marie is emotionally manipulating me!”

“Marie!” Mama reprimanded easily, but she hadn’t even turned from the television. “Leave your baby brother alone, you know how easily his bruises.”

“Yeah. Trust. We know.” Alex shuddered.

Lance turned to him in mock anger-confusion. “What is that supposed to mean, grinch?”

“Please, Lance. You are too comfortable walking around this house with no clothes on, and showering with the bathroom door open, which I am not going to miss when you go back tomorrow.” Alex humphed. “And it’s those traumatic moments that I’ve seen all the bruises all over you.”

That caught mother’s attention, she immediately twisted around and glared at Lance and with a hiss of her voice said. “What the hell have you been doing, Mijo? Bruised?! How?!”

“Oh don’t worry, mama.” Marie sickly sweet voice spoke up again as she perched beside Lance on the arm of the chair. “They’re not bruises, they’re called hickeys and Lance is absolutely covered in them!”

“I am not!” Lance gawped.

“You were when you first got here.” Alex smirked. “All over your back and legs and even on your gross butt as well! And do you know what’s worst? Is it that you have hickeys on your ass or that I have to live with the fact that I know you had hickeys on your ass?”

Lance turned beat red, he couldn’t even feel satisfied when Mama threw her pillow at Alex in response to his swearing, regardless whether the twins were around or not, swearing was not permitted in the McClain household… When Mama was around anyway. 

“Does this mean you finally have found yourself someone, Mijo?” Mama turned back, her voice sweet as well. Marie had got her voice from their mother, but where Mama’s was genuinely sweet and loving, Marie had tarnished it by making it bitter and mean.

“No!” Lance blushed even harder.

“Then who’s been punching your butt?” Javi frowned. “I don’t even get why they would even punch your butt.”

“Oh my god.” Alex threw his head back and groaned as Marie broke into a fit of giggles. “ _ Mongo!  _ Hickeys aren’t from punching with your fist they’re from-” 

Alex immediately cut himself with a harsh look from Mama, Lance could feel the threatening maternal aura from the opposite side of the couch.

“... Another body part.” Alex mumbled. “Sorry Mama.”

“Kisses.” Marie corrected. “They’re kisses, Javi.”

“Butt kisses?”

Now Marie was getting Mother’s glare. Of course they wanted Javi to be included on the Lance teasing, well he’d rather they weren’t teasing him, but there was only so much Mama was going to let the 13 year old learn about adult relationships. 

“Can we stop talking about this?!” Lance cried out, throwing his head in his hands. “I’m not seeing anyone.”

“Oh. So they’re not from a partner?” Mama moved her dagger eye from Marie and softened them for Lance.

“No!”

“Gross, man.” Marie leaned into his ear and whispered. “Stop telling Mama that you like sleeping around!”

“I’m not!” Lance called and slapped at Marie as she quickly retreated from Lance’s ear and moved back. “You’re all so mean to me! I’m supposed to be the second eldest sibling here.”

“You don’t look it.” Javi snorted.

“Or act it.” Marie tutted, looking at her perfectly manicured fingers as if the entire conversation was below her pay grade. 

“I’d put your IQ on the same level as the twins.” Alex smirked next.

“Alright. Alright.” Mama spoke up next, her accent slightly thicker with her raised voice. “You should all stop picking on  _ su hermano  _ he has a busy day tomorrow and he needs to relax.”

The room fell silence for a second but Lance caught the looks going between the eldest McClain siblings other than himself before Alex couldn’t help but snort and say “I think he’s been relaxing a little too much when his butt be looking like that.”

“I’m disowning all of you!” Lance shot up, throwing his hands up and immediately running to tackle his brother in the arm chair. The room erupted with laughter and yelling, the twins laughing and cheering Lance on as Lance relentless tackled his brother into a headlock and tickled at his brothers torso where he knew the younger McClain had always been secretly ticklish.

Lance could faintly hear the sound of their mother reprimanding them and telling them to stop, but Lance knew if Mama really meant it she would drag the two of them apart by the ears like she would when they were kids. She was enjoying this just as much as everyone else was.

Before too long, Lance felt a weight fall on his back as Javi jumped on top of him, effectively squishing Lance down into Alex to a point where Alex was squirming to get away but was entirely trapped. A second later, more weight came down as the twins began climbing up Lance’s dangling legs and up on top of Javi’s back squealing and cheering in glee. 

“You two are too small to rough house with your silly brothers!” Mama’s voice rang through again and the weight was instantly lifted again as the twins were carried to a safe distance across the room.

“Honestly!” Marie was the next to speak, walking around the outside of the armchair, staring down disapprovingly at her younger brothers. “The immaturity of the three of you. You’re supposed to be role models for the twins! And here you are fighting like you’re even younger than them!”

“Oh shut up, oldie!” Lance coughed from the weight on top of him. “You keep getting stressed like this and you’ll have more grey hairs than you do already.”

“Excuse me?”

“Lance is right, Saggy Sue! Lighten up!” Alex snorted but his words were fairly muffled since Lance’s entire chest was pushing into Alex’s face.

A final “Yeah” from Javi had Marie’s face screwing up in discontent as she immediately threw hands with the points, punching and poking them in uncomfortable spots that all three trying to escape from her clutches, but it was difficult to do when they were all just sat on top of one another. 

“I’ll show you guys old!” She yelled before suddenly throwing herself on the top of the dog pile, which was when Lance couldn’t take it anymore, his face broke out in smiles and his laughter came out as chokes as he tried desperately to breathe with all the weight on top of him, Javi and Alex were much the same, within a few seconds all three boys were begging for forgiveness just so Marie would free them from this squished prison. 

Finally she did, and they all erupted into soft giggles that for once, didn’t feel like they were a betrayal, didn’t feel like they were a cruel reminder of the other problems under this roof. It felt nice to laugh, to forget, even if it was for just a moment before a call sounded from upstairs. 

“That’s Papa. I’ll go-” Marie started before Lance rested a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back.

“No it’s okay, I’ll go. I want to talk to him before I have to go tomorrow anyway.” Lance smiled.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to-”

“It’s fine.” Lance smiled one last time before heading to the stairs in the hallway. Papa’s office was located on the second floor so it didn’t take long for Lance to carefully knock at the door and push inside slowly.

“Lance.” A choked out voice whispered, a voice similar to his own when Marie had sat on top of him downstairs, but his father was a painful reminder that not everything in life was a game. “My boy. Come in.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been up much,” Lance started with the apologies already. “I didn’t want to bring the twins in when you’re trying to get better.”

“It’s fine my boy.” Another cough. “I understand it can’t be easy for you to see me like this again.”

Lance hadn’t seen his father at all since he’d returned, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t done it on purpose, it was true, the thought of seeing his father hooked up had terrified him enough that he’d continuously make up excuses not to come up, and there was still that unconscious guilt from Lance’s actions a few years ago back when he and Keith-

Not something he wanted to think about more, not that he’d finally convinced himself to speak to his father before he heads back tomorrow.

“It’s good to see you, Pa.” Lance sighed, taking a seat beside his father’s bed. Machines beeped from all over the room but Lance tried to tune them out and just focus on the rough stubble on his father’s chin, the soft dopey smile which Lance had inherited.

“Your sister tells me you’ve been working hard since coming home. Looking after the twins while your mother has been working?” Diego McClain had a thick cuban accent that had never faded in all his years living in America, but it was only when Lance’s father was about to give the young boy a lecture that he really picked up the accent himself as something he wasn’t used to.

“Yes, sir.” Lance nodded politely.

“Well… I ask you politely that the next time you come home and your mother asks you, tell her no.”

Lance blinked in surprise. “You… want me to tell mama… no?”

Father McClain blinked and then nodded his head as if he’d changed his mind. “You’re right. Send her to me and I will tell her no. You are to spend time with your family, but also to relax from the massively difficult course that you have chosen to spend the rest of your life involved in. It is our responsibility as your family to provide you with a break from that course.” 

Lance nodded his head but he didn’t really understand where this was coming from or how really to respond.

“Especially since this was the course you chose... with your head, not with your heart.”

“Papa-”

“I know your mother convinced you not to take Psychology like you really wanted to because of the practical benefits with Astronomy. I understand you chose to go down the more practical option that was available to you but let me just tell you, life is not practical.” His father pushed himself up into a more seated position before continuing. “You can spend the entirety of your life, like I did, doing things by the book, doing everything you were supposed to do. Eat well, exercise, settle down, good job, work for promotions, have children. But life will not give you more benefit of the doubt than someone who did not follow the rules.”

“Pa, I-”

“My children are risk takers, Lance. Your mother and I raised you all to be. Don’t let that fade now just because your dad is a little, how your mother says, under the weather.”

Lance sighed but nodded his head, he hadn’t really come up here expected a lecture or a slice of life lesson from his dear old dad but he should’ve expected it really, he’s away for so long that once a week lectures he used to get now had to all be fitted into his short stays before he left again. Mama was much the same.

After the lecture, the conversation molded into something different, catching up about life and college and love.

Lance even might have let slip that he’d met up with Keith again.

“Don’t tell Mama!” Lance suddenly covered his mouth to stop any other secrets he wasn’t supposed to be yelling out. “It’s not that deep and I don’t want her to start ringing him like she did when we started dating when we were in high school.”

“So… The two of you aren’t dating?”

“No.”

“... He’s not the one that gave you all the butt bruises, right?”

Lance immediately blushed bright red, grappling for words but finding it difficult to find any as he just stuttered and squeaked and cried out.

“Your brother told me about all the hickeys. I hope you’re being safe Lance.” His father immediately reprimanded. “We already had one heart break from Keith Kogane. We won’t be needing another, thank you.”

After some whimpery reassurances by newly renamed Mortified McClain, Lance and his father dropped the subject talking for a little while longer before the senior McClain kicked Lance out and told him to go to bed. Lance nodded and helped his father back into a laying position and checked all the monitors and wires to make sure everything was as it should be before he heading out into the hallway. He moved towards his room and entered slowly, surprised to see his elder sister spread eagle across his bed, gazing up at the ceiling quietly.

She sat up as he came in and smiled gently at her. “I didn’t want to disturb the pair of you when you were talking so I thought I’d wait in here. You okay?”

Lance nodded, and genuinely it was true. He’d been feeling a lot of guilt about his father since returning but finally being able to speak to him, not just about the illness but about happy things had brightened Lance up more than he had expected it to.

“Ma and Pa are so proud of you, Lance.” Marie nodded her head as she stood to her feet. “Don’t forget that. Yes, things aren’t the easiest that they could be, money is tight, even I’m thinking of moving back home just to help pay more towards the mortgage and bills. Not that I think mama would let me but…”

Marie trailed off and gazed down at her feet before looking up again. “Pa’s medical bills are more than the mortgage on this house. Only one can be paid. What would you rather? Lose your husband but keep your children safe under one roof, or keep your husband but risk losing your home and splitting up your children, not being able to protect them.”

“Both are bad.” Lance mumbled almost childishly, a childish response.

“Yes.” Marie nodded. “But one is the opinion of mama, one is the opinion of papa. They can’t both be right but they try, because that’s how a marriage works, so neither bills are being paid and they are falling into more and more debt. It doesn’t matter how many extra shifts I pull. No matter how much Alex tries to sneak into mama’s purse when he thinks no one's watching or how much you send them from over in college. I don’t know what we can do Lance.”

“We… We’re a family.” Lance sighed. “No matter what happens. We stick together.”

Marie nodded again and stepped forward, pulling Lance into a tight embrace. “You’re right. You’re right, little bro.”

The two stood there for a while before Marie finally turned away and wiped a tear from under her eye. “I’m going to go check on pops, I’ll be here in the morning when you have to leave.”

Marie left and Lance climbed into bed, his eyelids grew heavy and he sighed, he’d be awake in a few hours anyway with nightmares but there was no point fighting the sleep now, not when he really truly needed it.

The next morning, surprised to have actually managed to sleep through the night, Lance rose and stretched himself out until every part of him felt limber and loose. He quickly changed into his travelling closed and carried his suitcase downstairs.

When he reached the downstairs, the house was a buzz of life. The twins animatedly eating and yelling into Javi’s direction who was making silly noises and funny faces back in theirs. Alex was on the phone with one of his soccer team friends if the conversation was anything to go on while Marie and Mama were arguing over in the back corner of the kitchen. Nothing new, Mama and Marie were both born stubborn, but they never butted heads for too long. In fact they stopped as soon as Lance came in and took his place at the table.

“Mijo! I’m so sorry! I have to take your brother to soccer practice and then take the twins to their swim class. I won’t be able to take you down to the station.”

“Ma! I already told you!” Alex grumbled pulling the phone from his ear. “I can give practice a miss for a few weeks, the season just ended, I don’t need to go.”

“Ridiculous, Mijo, you’re going!” Mama called back in her “end-of-conversation” tone that immediately had Alex shutting up. “Marie, can you take your brother to the station?”

“I have to look after dad.” Marie groaned next. “I told the carers to come in at lunch time since I’m here.”

“You can afford to leave your father for 30 minutes while you drive your brother to his bus.” Mama shot back.

“No Ma, I-”

“If it’s that big of a deal, Javi can stay with your father while you take Lance.” Mama shot back. “Half an hour, Marie. Half an hour. If that.”

Javi looked up when he heard his name and nodded as he caught on to why he’d been mentioned, he’d never had a problem with just keeping an eye on dad before just to make sure everything was going smoothly.

“It’s fine. I can walk.” Lance chuckled. “It’s not even a twenty minute walk to the station and you guys forget, I grew up in this town, I can manage a short walk.”

“Mijo-”

“Ma it’s fine. Marie doesn’t want to go. I won’t make her.” Lance nodded in his sister’s direction. 

“Alright.” Mother nodded before tapping Alex on the back of the head half way through talking with his mouth full of food into the phone. “Shoes on, Alexander, we’re leaving. Javi, Marie, put some shoes on the twins, I need to check I’ve got everything in my bag.”

Mother quickly scuttered off as Javi and Marie went into power mode and simultaneously lifted one twin each from their chairs and onto the table.

“Lance could you grab their shoes from the corner there?” Marie asked pointing to the corner of the room. Lance happily obliged, grabbing the shoes and coming back again like a good pet.

The twins giggled and messed around as Marie tried her best to get shoes on Georgio, and Javi was making a bit of a dog's dinner of getting Sophia’s shoes on her. Lance took pity as Javi struggled to get even one shoe on and quickly grabbed the other and pulled it over Sophie’s tiny foot, strapping it tight immediately before she could kick her legs in protest. Just as he pulled back, Javi tightened the shoe of his own and looked up with a wide grin as he grabbed his sister and lifted her onto his torso, bouncing her around as she giggled.

Marie grabbed Georgio and the two headed towards the front door and towards the car, Alex soon joined them having left the table a few minutes ago and grabbing his shoes from his room. Alex climbed into the front seat while Georgio and Sophia were buckled into their booster seats in the back. 

As all three open doors shut, Lance pulled back and high fived his two remaining siblings for their work just as mama left the house with her bag on her shoulder. She thanked Marie and Javi for their work before enveloping Lance tightly in her grip.

“It was lovely to have you home, Mijo.” His mother cooed. “Come home again soon.”

“Of course, mama.” He nodded.

He watched as his mother climbed into the car and the car rolled backwards down from the driveway and away. The twins waved from the backseat and Alex gave a little salut from the front as they drove away.

The three remaining siblings headed inside and since Lance had to go soon, he quickly packed himself some food since he’d be stuck on the bus till about midnight tonight and needed a little something to keep him going through the 14/15 hours. He then went up stairs and said his goodbyes to his father, hugging him so loosely just in case Lance’s weight snapped his father's already fragile body.

“Stay safe, my son.” Diego McClain whispered, his body dreary from all the pain medication he was on. “Come home soon.”

Lance nodded his goodbyes and then headed downstairs where Marie and Javi were waiting for him by the front door, Javi holding Lance’s suitcase out in front of him.

“Trying to get rid of me faster?” Lance chuckled but there was a slight whimper in his tone, he was going to miss his home, it was always the first day without that was the hardest.

“We could never get rid of you, parasite.” Marie smiled good heartedly before taking her brother in her arms and squeezing him as tight as she possibly could. “Come home soon, yeah?”

“You know it.” Lance smiled as he pulled back and immediately reached for his younger brother and pulled him in. Unexpectedly, Javi didn’t fight the hug at all, just leaned right in and hugged his brother right back.

“Careful with your bones, old man.” Javi sassed. “Don’t need you coming home with a broken hip or something next time.”

Lance humphed unhappily but continued to hug his brother tight before letting him go and grabbing his suitcase.

“I’ll be back during spring break.” Lance smiled.

“Not all of it I hope.” Marie laughed. “You’re 19, Lance, get a boyfriend and get L-A-I-D already.”

Javi frowned. “You know I can spell right? That stupid spelling technique doesn’t work on me anymore.”

Marie shrugged as she grabbed at Lance and began to push him out the front door, which he was thankful for, otherwise he might never convince himself to leave. He made his way out the front door and down the driveway to the sidewalk where he turned back to Marie and Javi one last time.

He gave one final wave as his two siblings went back inside and closed the door behind them. 

Time to go home.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays! Happy new year! How was the new season - I still haven't watched it! Can we just pretend that it hasn't been nearly a month since my last update? I'm a fake fan, yet again I know less about the cannon world than everyone else but I've heard that it's all garbage anyway and everyone's written it off so... Do I really have to watch it?

Lance was back in Arizona before he knew it, he tried to take his mind off his family by immediately kicking himself back into college mode. He met up with his classmate to knock out as much of the next deadline as they could and Lance was pretty proud with how far he got into it and was proud of the work he was doing. He got back to work, enjoying spending time with his coworkers, and on the last day before school restarted, Hunk and Lance hosted a small dinner party.

It wasn’t anything massively special. Pidge and Allura came and they brought Shiro with them, no one mentioned the absence of a certain second year Astrology with jet black hair and an ass that could knock out a wrestler. The group ate homemade pizza  _ a‘la _ Hunk and watched Gordon Ramsay on TV with non-alcoholic wine, giggling like kids. It was the perfect way to start the new school year, when everyone returned back to their homes and into their beds it was with happy smiling faces.

Returning back to school was fine, Lance didn’t bump into Keith once for the first few days, Lance had even noticed that the raven haired succubus had been absent from their tutoring slot but he chose not to point that out to Hunk, admitting that Lance was looking out for him was just a bad idea all around. He had told Hunk everything when he got back and it seemed like Hunk was more angry about than Lance was, who was still just… Sad.

Lance woke up one morning, towards the end of his first week back at college feeling rougher than he’d expected. He’d went to bed fine, his whole routine accomplished, a belly full of good food but as he woke up early he felt a sudden throbbing in his head, so painful to the point where he felt dizzy laying down on his back. 

“Buddy, I hate to break it to you.” Hunk smiled softly a little while after Lance had woken up, resting his palm on Lance’s forehead. “But you’re sick. You’re not going anywhere today.”

“I’ve gotta go to the library to finish my assignment.” Lance groaned, closing his eyes as another bolt of tension shot through his brain.

“I’ll leave my laptop open and unlocked and you can use that. I’d rather you didn’t leave the house today.” Hunk whispered, removing his hand and resting it on Lance’s shoulder now. “Get some more rest, it’s still early. I have to leave for my lectures soon but before I go I’ll put some chicken soup out and heat it up for you.”

Lance whined, pathetic and whimpery. “Thank you.”

Hunk slowly stood to his feet to go, but Lance didn’t see him leave as almost a second later he sparked out again, too drained to keep his eyes open another second. He lay like that for a while, unconsciously waving another thank you when Hunk came back later and put the bowl of chicken soup on the bedside table next to him, as well as a cup of, what smelt like, lemon and honey water before leaving for his lecture. 

Lance laid there for hours, until his food and drink had both gone stone cold but their smells enough to trigger a rumble in Lance’s stomach as he slowly began to wake up once more. He twisted on his side and grabbed his phone from the side of the bed, it was nearing noon, Hunk must’ve left about an hour ago and wouldn’t be back until late. Lance groaned as he rolled out of bed and took the gifts from Hunk back to the kitchen to reheat them.

As he waited for his food to warm up, he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and downed it in a few seconds, refilling the bottle and replacing it in the fridge as soon as he had finished. 

After a few minutes, the microwave pinged and Lance grabbed his things, giving both a stir with their own designated spoons before walking them through into the living room and settled down into the sofa. Hunk’s chicken soup, even if it had been heated from frozen, was like a whole different type of medicine. Hunk rarely made his chicken soup but there was always a container or two in the freezer for emergencies just like today. One of many reasons that Lance loved Hunk because he knew that the second Hunk got back tonight he’d get to working replacing the chicken soup that Lance was eating now, always ensuring a spare was always within reach.

He quickly finished the soup, barely even taking breaths between each mouthful, and then reached for his drink, sipping at it slowly as he flicked on something random on the telly. He was already feeling a little better, his head wasn’t throbbing like it had been this morning and his stomach now felt warm and full rather than crampy like earlier. 

He sat there for another half an hour, slowly getting more and more content before suddenly he heard a knock at the door. 

He groaned as he stood to his feet and slowly made his way to the front door, fiddling with the hem of his shirt as he went, he hadn’t been expecting company, Allura, Hunk and Pidge all had lectures right now so it couldn’t have been any of them.

Lance rolled his eyes, it was probably just a sales person or a jehovah's witness, and they were easily sent away usually.

As he reached the door, Lance made a grab for the handle and slowly twisted it before pulling the door open, he’d expected a salesperson, nothing special, just a little bit of inconvenience. What he hadn’t expected was Keith Kogane standing in his door, smiling shyly at him before giving a soft wave.

“Hey Lance.”

“Oh. Keith. It’s you.” Lance mumbled, rubbing at his aching head. 

“Hey, Lance.” Keith gulped, standing awkwardly at the front door, he was dressed in his leisure clothes which meant he hadn’t had any lectures today as Keith nearly always wore black skinny jeans and his favourite red jacket, not a pair of loose fit tracksuit bottoms and a short black crop top like he was a character from a Dance AU or something. “You’re home. Hunk in?”

Lance rubbed at his eyes sleepily, he wasn’t in the mood for this right now. “No he's in class at the moment and if you couldn't already tell I'm not sleeping with you. I'm tired, sore, ill-”

Keith held his hands up in surrender immediately, his face a wide cocktail of emotions yet Lance couldn’t even pick out one. “No, I know. I wasn't here for that… I was wondering if we could talk.”

“Talk?” Lance sighed, continuing to block the door so that Keith couldn't try and worm his way in. Keith was absolutely the last person that Lance wanted to see so getting this over with was probably the best decision. Like a band aid. “About?”

“You know…” Keith gulped. “Everything. Us. The past. Now. Just… I wanted to see you.”

Lance probably didn’t catch his surprise in time to mask it from his face as he watched Keith almost dance on the balls of us feet, awkwardly.

“You wanted to talk about us?” Lance frowned disbelievingly, this had to be a trap, Keith was going to lure Lance into a sense of security and then BAM, Lance is used in the next chicken soup. 

“Well…” Keith groaned, it was increasingly obvious that even Keith was feeling just as uncomfortable as Lance right now. “We never have properly spoke about it… and… Shiro said it would be good for us to talk through everything. So we can start afresh. He really likes Allura. He wants all of us to get along.”

“Well.” Lance sighed reaching beside the door and pulling on his boots. He wasn’t about to let Keith in, remove the risk of Lance falling into bed with again, so he had no choice but to go out with him. Who cares if Lance looked like he’d had a fight with a murder of crows during the night, it was only Keith looking at him and Lance had no motivation to make himself “pretty enough” for Keith. “If Shiro says.”

He grabbed his coat as well and pulled it over him, zipping it up all the way and pulling the hood over his head, if Hunk knew Lance was going out then Lance would be in for the lecture of the century so best wrap up warm so his sickness doesn’t get any worse. 

“We can go get a drink somewhere if you want. To stay out of the cold.” Keith mumbled. “It’s not that cold but it’s probably not good for you to be outside… If you’re ill.”

“I’m fine.” Lance snarked back, his voice blunt as he grabbed his keys finally and followed Keith into the corridor. He closed the door gently and then began to lead Keith from the flat and down the stairs into the communal gardens of the apartment complex. 

“We can just sit here.” Lance muttered as they walked about halfway and Lance plonked himself unceremoniously down onto the short grass. “I doubt this will take long.”

“We have a lot to talk about, though?” Keith questioned.

Lance snorted. “But we can’t go five minutes without arguing and the other storming off.”

Keith sighed in defeat as he slowly sat down on the grass himself. “Fine. I promise I won’t get mad and run off. I want to talk about this Lance, all of it.”

Lance shrugged his shoulders with a quiet “fine.”

The two fell into silence, understandably, it was hard to find a place to start with these two. Did they start at the good times? The bad times? The aftermath? What they were now? It was difficult to find a page and read into it, but they weren’t going to get anyway by just sitting in silence so Lance deciding to take the plunge and ask the first question. 

“What was the break up like for you?” Lance gulped.

“So we jumping straight into it, are we?”

“This was your idea, mullet brain, you wanna talk. Let’s talk.”

Keith gazed at him for a second, his expression made Lance think he was going to yell but his voice was soft as he spoke.

“It sucked.” Keith murmured. “It wasn't just like losing someone I was dating. I lost… everyone. My best friends, more family than friends. I knew I couldn't come back to the group after the break up so I just stuck to myself for the rest of high school. I lost my best friends because we didn’t… End well.”

Lance had known that when they ended, had felt guilty, even though the break up was Keith’s idea, it was mostly Lance’s fault that he came to that decision. Hunk and Pidge had tried to spend time with Keith away from Lance, but the way they phrased it made it sound like Keith didn’t want to be around any of them.

“I’m sorry it came to that.” Lance mumbled. “I never wanted to isolate you.”

“I know.” Keith whispered. “It was my choice, being around any of you made me think about the old days, the good days, and because we couldn’t get that back… Well, I just wanted to cut myself off completely.”

“That sounds lonely.”

“It was. It still is, sometimes.” Keith played around with his hands in his lap, obviously processing what he wanted to say next. “You guys… Well, it was so easy to be friends with you all, you forced yourselves into my life and into my brain and didn’t seem to care that I was… blunt and sarcastic and rude. Eventually, being around the three of you became the new normal and it was nice, and I’ve never found that since. Never been close to anyone like that since.”

“I’m glad we all found each other again then.” Lance muttered, when they broke up all he wanted to do was forget Keith, push him from his mind, so he’d barely considered Keith having to find new friends again. “Because being alone isn’t fun. No one deserves that. Especially you.”

Keith shrugged, brushing off the comments. “What about for you? The break up, I mean.”

“Rough.” Lance chuckled sadly, not really knowing what else he could say. “I know I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised that you chose to end it, but I knew I couldn’t argue or fight it so I spent the following months accepting what I had done wrong and… Well, just tried to get used to a life without you in it anymore.”

“I thought you would’ve been jumping for joy.” Keith mumbled.

“What makes you say that?” Lance raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in confusion.

“I thought you’d grown tired of me honestly, but were just too scared to do anything about it.” Keith laughed to himself but Lance could hear the self-deprication and sadness behind it. “So I did it myself.”

“That’s not true!” Lance snapped his head round and basically snarled. “That’s not true at all!”

“What was I supposed to think then?” Keith snapped back, immediately matching Lance’s tone.

“Well- I- There was-” What could Lance say? He hadn’t told Keith the truth when they were dating, how could he do it now?

“No, go on, Lance.” Keith yelled, raising his hands up. “We’re over now so why can’t I know now?”

“It’s just personal stuff!” Lance tried. “My family. Stuff at home.”

“Like what?!”

“Well there’s just issues going on. Behind closed doors. No one knows about it except my family we- It’s not something we’re open about with outsiders.”

“It was you who wanted us to be serious! You who insisted I met your family, came to dinners, sat in on family meetings!” Keith snapped. “If you changed your mind you should’ve just said!”

“You know what, enough!” Lance growled. “You don’t get it!”

Keith snarled back. “No, ‘cause how could I understand something when it comes to family?” 

Lance threw back his head immediately in exasperation. “You know that’s not what I meant!”

“Then just explain it to me, Lance!” Keith snapped. “Give me something! It’s the same as before with you, always shutting me out, never giving me any sort of emotion unless it was dripping from the end of your dick.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You never told me anything!” Keith jumped up to his feet to stare down at Lance. “For the entirety of our relationship it was like talking to a brick wall. I always laid my heart out to you, which is what I thought you did with the guy you’re dating, but you gave me absolutely nothing back in return.”

“Well what do you expect?” Lance growled in frustration, resting his head on top of his knees. “You had your own problems and what kind of boyfriend would I have been if I just added to that and made you more stressed out? Especially around exam time.”

“I was stressed out anyway!” Keith growled back. “My boyfriend who I was head over heels for was barely even talking to me and it seems that any time we were alone he just wanted one thing from me and then was up and out before I’d even had the chance to recover. Sound familiar?”

“Well that's not how it was!” Lance argued back, only now trying his best to keep his voice down to not disturb people around but it was difficult, there was a reason Keith and Lance couldn’t just talk this out back at the time, they definitely couldn’t do it now. “I was so happy we were dating. I knew I was in love with you from, like, day one. I loved being around you… Yeah maybe I should've said it a bit more but…”

Lance paused for a moment to think about the last few weeks of their relationship. The pair couldn't have seen each other more than 3 times out of school and 2 of them Lance had pushed Keith into bed… Had Keith even wanted to? Had he just slept with Lance because he thought he had to?

If Lance really loved Keith, or he was so sure that he did at the time, surely he could’ve been able to pick that up. Then why now was he so unsure? 

“... You're right.” Lance whispered. “I was selfish. I'm sorry that I was like that.”

Keith sighed in complete and utter defeat, his expression blanking once again as he sat back down on the floor cross-legged. “It's whatever. We were hormonal teenagers I suppose.”

“We still are.”

The pair fell into silence for a second and Lance immediately felt the guilt begin to crawl its way up his spine. Keith had been the one to be honest, to tell the truth, this entire time and Lance had given him nearly nothing. He had to give Keith something, just to reassure him that the breakup was really all down to Lance and had nothing to do with Keith whatsoever.

“Keith… The thing with my family, it’s not something that I feel comfortable talking about, even now, very few people know the details. Hunk isn’t even including in that number, he only knows a little due to… extraneous circumstances.” Lance sighed, collapsing backwards onto his back, staring at the sky as he continued. “I’m sorry that you felt the way you did, I just… I couldn’t do it. I still don’t think I can. I’m sorry.”

Lance looked to the side and saw Keith staring down at him, his expression completely unreadable. 

“It’s fine.” Keith mumbled. “I don’t feel as angry about as I used to. If you say there was stuff you didn’t want to talk about that’s fine.”

“I really mean it. I just didn’t want to burden you with my problems.” Lance sat up again, the conversation was awkward and uncomfortable making him fidgety and restless but it was necessary nonetheless. “You were family. You were. But that’s why I couldn’t tell you, if I could go back and not know, I would.”

“Well… I’m not entirely forgiving you.” Keith quirked a corner of his lips. “You could’ve done what you’re doing now and told me there was something wrong. I would’ve been there for you, and at least I wouldn’t have been thinking the worst for weeks before ending it.”

“The worst?”

“Yeah.” Keith sighed. “Every worst case scenario ran through my head. Maybe you were cheating, you didn’t really want to date me, you were actually straight, that you were just an asshole after a while. I’d say cheating ran through the most though. I was convinced you were seeing that girl in your history class because you used to talk about her a lot.”

“She was Marie’s ex-boyfriend’s little sister and we were doing a project together.” Lance chuckled. “Also, if I was cheating, surely you don’t think I’m stupid enough to talk to you about my… Mistress.”

Keith looked surprise but even he couldn’t stop the chuckle that fell through his perfectly pink lips. “Maybe… Maybe even you aren’t that stupid.”

“Wow.” Lance barked out a laugh. “Thanks for that. That’s pretty much a compliment from you.”

Keith laughed back, “Shut up!”

The two fell into a fit of giggles, clutching at their stomachs as they couldn’t stop themselves even if they tried. Laughing away the pain that they’d been feeling in themselves for years, finally working through everything that had been unspoken and misunderstood for years.

As they finally cooled down, Lance allowed himself a touch and rested his hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“So… Can we, I dunno, not put everything behind us as such but just start afresh?” Lance asked. “Not just for Allura and Shiro but… For ourselves.”

“Yeah.” Keith smiled, so bright Lance thought he could see stars in the shorter man’s soul. “We can do that.”

“Good.”

“Besides. Shiro didn’t tell me to come over here in the first place.” Keith shrugged happily. “I wanted to come and talk through this.”

“Careful, Keith, you might ruin your reputation admitting to soppy stuff like that.”

“Oh my god, shut up.” Keith shoved at Lance’s body so he fell back on his back again. “I mean, there’s still stuff we should talk about, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy but it’ll be nice to just… Get along again.”

“Yeah.” Lance smirked. 

“And we don’t need to worry about expectations, we can just be us.”

“Yeah. I won’t force you to sleep with me anymore.” Lance winked.

“Lance…” Keith rolled his eyes smiling as he leaned closer to Lance. “If I didn’t want to sleep with you, I never would have. You never forced me to do anything, those last few weeks were hard and there are things I regret, but being with you was never one of them. I enjoyed sex, and sex with someone you love, is always good. To me anyway.”

“Have you-” Lance gulped. “Slept with someone you love since?”

Keith looked up as if looking into his brain for the answer. “I’ve slept with a lot of people. A lot. Some I probably shouldn’t have but… No. No one that I ever loved. It’s a very different feeling. What about you?”

“I’ve never even slept with anyone else.” Lance shrugged. “I mean, I’ve fooled around, a few drunken kisses and I’ve brought a guy or two home before but we never went as far as sex. There was no one I ever wanted to go that far with me.”

“So you’ve only slept with one person?” Keith raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Just… Me.”

“Yeah. You were my first partner after all and well… At that start of year party I was pretty drunk and, well, I suppose being with someone who already knew a lot about my body was more tempting than someone who I’d have to teach.”

Keith raised his eyebrows and turned away without another word.

“Do you think it’s weird?”

“That you’ve only slept with me?” Keith turned to him slowly.

“Yeah?”

Keith paused for a second, reading into Lance’s face before he let out a soft chuckle. “No. In fact, I’ll take it as a compliment. You haven’t found anyone better than me, yet. How could I  _ not _ take it as a compliment?”

“Shut up!” Lance chuckled and punched softly at Keith’s shoulder.

Keith smirked but then looked down at his feet again. “Do you think… I’m weird?”

“Weird?” Lance frowned. “In what way?”

“That I’ve slept with… Well, a lot of people.”

Lance thought for a moment. “No, why would that be weird? We both made our own decisions and we could’ve easily been the opposite. It’s just the decisions we made because it’s what we wanted. I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

“Well, if it makes it any better. I never cheated. And I didn’t sleep with anyone after you until after we started college.”

“I hadn’t even been thinking about that.” Lance shrugged. “And when you started sleeping with others is none of my business. It was what you wanted at the end of the day and that’s totally normal.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Lance nodded. “Who knows, Maybe, I haven’t reached my hoe stage yet. This time next year you’ll be looking at the guy who’s with someone new every… Day!”

“I doubt that.” Keith snorted.

“You think I can’t?”

“Well no.” Keith mumbled. “I just dunno if you’re the type to do meaningless sex.”

“I could!” Lance whined.

“You just said the only reason you slept with me is because we know each other’s bodies already and it explains why you never slept with anyone you hooked up with.”

Shoot. Keith was right. Lance pouted. “Well my beliefs could change.”

“Sorry, Lance.” Keith smiled. “I don’t mean to not believe you. But the type of person you are, I don’t think you’re going to change anytime soon.”

“Well… I can try.”

“If you wanna change then how about this? Make a deal.”

“A deal?” Lance frowned.

“Yeah. I mean, our issues came from not being honest with each other, or not sharing our emotions with each other. So how about from now on… We trust each other properly. Help each other.”

“I… I agree.” Lance whispered. “And for as much as I can, I promise to start being more honest.

“That sounds good to me.”

“Good.”

The two talked for a while longer, mostly about college and upcoming assignments. Keith even gave Lance a book recommendation to reference in his assignment which Lance was more than grateful for since he hadn’t worked on the assignment at all today and he still had a little more to do before the due date in a few days. 

They joked around a little about Allura and Shiro’s new relationship, got nostalgic over some old teachers and classmates from high school before Lance suddenly was wrecked by a harsh shiver and a throb in his head.

He was sick after all and had been lucky that his conversations with Keith had kept him from thinking about it for so long, but he was starting to get fever tired. Keith noticed and helped Lance to his feet, leading Lance back to the front of the apartment complex and upstairs towards Lance’s flat.

Lance and Keith parted ways and for the first time, Lance didn’t miss Keith when he was going, didn’t worry about what they were or what they could be. He was perfectly content. Obviously, becoming friends was going to be an awkward journey at times, they still did have a rough past but now at least it was a lot smoother. But one day they would be friends, good friends.

Lance was going to be okay with that.

Eventually.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly this is probably one of my favourite chapters and I don't even know why.
> 
> Also I felt bad for the long wait before so I thought I'd post this chapter soon after the last one.

The buzz of the new year wore off pretty quickly for Lance, not long into January, Lance ended up taking an extra shift at work on Thursday evenings since money had gotten tighter over the christmas period what with Lance now deciding to send an extra $50 a week to his family back home.

He didn’t mind, but it did mean they had to work the extra 5 hours a week if he wanted to keep paying rent. It was only 5 hours, plus he was a fully trained keyholder now so his pay had gone up a little now which was definitely a big bonus.

January soon rolled into February which rolled into March and Lance surprisingly felt okay. Things were working themselves out, college was going okay, his grades were stable and passing which was all that really mattered, and if he ever needed help he had a great platonic study buddy to give him tips.

Keith was still a bit of an enigma. Their new found friendship had come as quite a shock to Lance really, he never expected that after that one conversation a couple of months ago that the two could just… Be fine? They got on so much better than they used to, hung out as friends, sure there was still some tension every now and again but it was nothing compared to what it used to be like.

Being with Keith now was like a gush of fresh air straight into Lance’s lungs, Keith grounded him in a way, kept him motivated, kept him sane, you would think that an anxious bunny like Keith would be a terrible comforter in moments of extreme stress but he actually held his own against Lance pretty well.

Don’t get Lance wrong, were there times that Keith would stretch his arms above his head and yawn and his shirt would ride up just a little that Lance could see the bottom of his belly button poke out with a short trail of hair that led down into trousers and would cause Lance to drool and dribble and have to cross his legs to hide his growing interest? Yes. Of course there were. Had he almost cracked numerous times when Keith tied his hair up in a ponytail during times where they both ass deep in papers that were due in the next coming days?

Was Lance dying of sexual frustration and absolutely desperate to get his ass rammed back into the 1970s when it was actually fashionable acceptable for people to be sporting mullets?

Abso-fucking-lutely. 

Still, things were great! Lance wasn’t about to ruin that by asking Keith to ‘be a bro’ and just platonically pound his ass into the nearest surface available.

So, Lance kept his still burning crush hidden deep inside of himself, having Keith in his life was a good enough deal, Keith was kind, considerate and funny and the pair of them got along better than they have in years. In fact it reminded Lance a lot of those first couple of months after first meeting back in high school, they bantered and joked with each other and it was just like how friends should be.

So Lance left well enough alone, he didn’t even react other than a raised eyebrow when Keith walked into his place of work one Friday evening and leaned over the counter with a nervous smile on his face.

“Your shift ends at half five, right?” Keith suddenly blurted, Lance could see Keith bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet nervously as if he was worried Lance was going to make a run for it at any moment.. “You’re not on the lates tonight.”

“Hi Keith. Yes I’m fine thank you for asking. How are you?” Lance rolled his eyes in amusement as he wiped down the counter Keith was currently leaning on, intentionally wiping the damp cloth over Keith’s fingers.

Keith recoiled immediately and crossed his arms over his chest with a pout. “Yeah, sorry. I’m fine. Do you finish at half five tonight?”

Lance chuckled, folding the cloth and placing it back on the edge of the sink before turning back to Keith’s waiting gaze. “If my replacement actually comes in this time then yeah, I should finish around then. Why?”

“The group’s going bowling tonight. Me, you, Hunk, Pidge, Shiro and Allura.” Keith stated, reaching towards the bag on his back and bringing it forward. “I got told to pick you up from work and drive you down. Hunk’s already given me a change of clothes to give you.”

Lance watched as Keith rummaged through and showed Lance one of his own shirts stuffed, rather untidily, at the bottom of Keith’s bag as if that was supposed to be an incentive to go. “Umm… I can’t really afford it, Keith. Bowling is expensive.” 

Sure, Lance may have got a raise, and sure he was doing a few more hours a week, but he was still skint, Lance was budgeting himself to the absolute penny of what he could and could not spend and for this month he only had $14.29 to spend on frivolous or luxury items and sure, that was just about how much a couple games at the bowling alleys cost but he had other things to buy, like his shower gel was running low, and he was in need of a new toothbrush, things like that which would have to be taken out of the food budget if he went to this bowling meetup.

“I’ll float you the money, don’t worry.” Keith shrugged, closing his bag back up after grabbing his wallet from the top.

“Keith.” Lance mumbled uncomfortably, he wasn’t a charity case and he wasn’t about to start taking money from his friends. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. Now do your job would you and get me a coffee? I’ll sit here and wait for you to finish.” Keith smirked, laying a five dollar bill down on the counter.

“Keith, you can’t just-” but before Lance could finish, Keith had already turned around and walked to the other side of the store.

Lance growled in frustration but got to work on Keith’s coffee, making it the way he knew Keith liked since this wasn’t actually the first time Keith had visited him at work. After figuring out that Lance worked here a few months ago, Keith quite often popped by for a coffee since he got the mates rates discount. Lance hadn’t offered that discount by the way, Keith had demanded it as if he had a right to it now that the pair of them were getting along better than ever.

Lance ran the coffee through the till and placed Keith’s change down on a tray, followed by the coffee and finally a small chocolate mint that Lance occasionally gave out for free to special customers. He was supposed to give them to every customer but he was a simple man, and a simple man sometimes forgot.

After checking everything was fine, Lance walked around from the counter and marched the tray over to where Keith was sat at the back of the shop. The shop was pretty much empty apart from a young teen in one corner using the free wifi, and an elderly couple sipping on cappuccinos and chowing down tea cakes in the center so Lance had no problem perching down next to Keith with a hiss.

“You might as well drink your drink and go Keith, I really can’t come.”

“What made you think you had a choice?” Keith snipped back unaffected by Lance’s words, a neutral expression on his face as he unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite from it before offering the other half to Lance.

Lance rolled his eyes as he took the chocolate from Keith’s fingers using his teeth and slowly chewed on the sweet treat before swallowing. 

“Ew.” Lance immediately growled. “I give those out to people? I should stop doing that immediately.”

Keith huffed in amusement before reaching for his coffee. “I like them. It’s spearmint instead of peppermint which is usually in chocolate mints. I’m not really all that big into peppermint, reminds me of this time I went home with this guy after a party and-”

“Do I really wanna know this story?” Lance snorted. “Is this something that is going to improve my life greatly by knowing?”

“Yes, so, I went home with this guy after a party and my mouth tasted like vodka and cranberry juice so I wanted to freshen up so I slipped a couple of peppermint chewing gums into my mouth. So this guy and I get back to his, and there’s no kissing, he just asks me to suck his dick, so I agree” Keith snorts. “I had just got started and I’m about to start really sucking the soul out of him when all of a sudden he starts freaking out and pulling away and grabbing his dick and-”

“Y’know, I should have said earlier but this story isn’t exactly enlightening my spirit right now.” Lance tried to hide the smile on his face but it was kinda difficult while watching Keith trying to keep himself composed as he talked.

“No no but!” Keith was laughing now, placing his cup back down on the table to save himself from spilling it everywhere. “Turns out this guy was allergic to peppermint and I totally gave his dick an allergic reaction!”

“You did not!” Lance threw his hands over his mouth in shock. “What did you do?”

“Well I tried to help! But the guy was seriously freaking out and was telling me to leave and get out and I didn’t know what else to do so I just left.” Keith hung his head down. “I texted him a few days later to apologise and he said that his dick looked like a red cauliflower. So yeah, I try to avoid peppermint nowadays, bad memories.”

Lance gently knocked his head down onto the table. “I swear to the gods, only you would have a story like that.”

“Why? Cause I’m such a slut?” Keith laughed, lifting Lance’s head back up to squeeze his cheeks. “I have many terrible tales from the times I’ve been in the sack. That’s the only good thing sleeping with questioning straight men has ever given me.”

“Keep those stories for your deathbed, ringo. I’ve got to get back to work.” Lance laughed.

“See you at half 5.” Keith waved back still chuckling to himself before he reached for his drink again. “We’re meeting the others at 6 so don’t worry about rushing.”

Lance went to argue again but decided in the end to not, he’d lost, Keith had won, Lance would just borrow from next month’s luxury items budget. Hunk could always float him ten dollars in those few days before pay day if Lance really needed to get some food in or something. 

For the next 45 minutes, Lance continued working, cleaning down tables and recleaning the coffee machine since it was so quiet before his coworker Nyma walked through the door with a sour look on her face.

“I can’t believe Rolo convinced me to do the close today when I’ve specifically told him to stop giving me Sunday evenings.” Nyma groaned. “I can do the opening that’s fine, can’t he swap Romelle and I over so she does the evening.”

“Romelle works at her other job in the evenings.” Lance replied, this must have been the dozenth time Nyma and he had had this exact same conversation. “Plus the opens are a longer shift, she needs to work the open in order to meet her contracted hours.”

Shifts had been changing around as of recently, Lance being given a lot of middle shifts instead of closing shifts but since he was a key holder now, that was likely to change again soon. Lance wasn’t sure what he preferred. The afternoon shifts were longer than the evening shifts, and busier, but there was just something nicer about being able to get home after lectures, chill and revise for a bit before going to work, rather than having to rush straight from a lecture to work.

Nyma huffed and sighed before walking into the back room to put her stuff away and get cleaned up ready for her shift. While Lance waited for her return, Keith walked up and ordered another coffee as well as a hot chocolate before going back to his seat with both drinks in hand.

Nyma walked in, aproned up and hair tied back and it was like she was a new woman, wide smile, positive body language and a sweet sickly voice to match.

“Rolo just texted to tell me he’s going to be changing the rota again in the next couple of weeks, it’s most likely that I’ll be getting the middle shifts and you’ll be getting the closing shifts since Rolo knows how much you’ve been rushing to get to work over the last week. If that’s alright with you of course.”

“Yeah it’s fine by me.” Lance nodded. “But… The shifts are shorter right? Four hours instead of five.”

“Usually it works out as four and a half because even after you close the shop there’s a few things you’ve got to do. If you talk to Rolo he could contract you for the five hours and you can just stay longer after closing the shop, or he might be able to give you an extra shift somewhere.” Nyma smiled. “Rolo likes you, and he is a good boss, so he’ll try to give you what you need.”

The two talked worked for the next fifteen minutes before Lance started preparing himself to leave, signing himself from till and doing his X report and finally going into the back room to clock out and coat up.

The next time he came back through to the shop from the back room, he was apron free and ready to flee. He practically skipped over to Keith and sat opposite him in the booth.

“This is for you.” Keith nodded to the hot chocolate. “Should be cool enough for you to drink since I bought it a while ago.”

“Thanks dude.” Lance smiled, a little anxious that Keith had spent money on him but grateful nonetheless. “Should we go?”

“Finish our drinks first, it’s not like you can bring them. My bike doesn’t have cup holders.”

“You brought the bike?” Lance gulped, a little apprehensive of course since he’d never actually ridden on Keith’s bike before. “I thought you’d bring your car.”

“Why would I bring the car?” Keith snorted. “The weather is nice for the first time in weeks, I haven’t had her out at all for the entire winter.”

Keith was a scholarship kid so he didn’t have to worry so much about tuition fees and he had a large maintenance loan because of his family situation and he had been thrown bursaries from the word go. So basically, for a student, Keith had the money to be able to keep and run two vehicles, a car and a bike, it helped that Keith had pretty much built the two as he was able to maintain them pretty much with no step in from mechanics or dealerships.

Lance nodded his head and downed his hot chocolate as fast as he could before grabbing the bag of clothes from beside Keith and sneaking back into the staff toilets to change out of his coffee stained trousers, from one crumpled shirt to another.

The outfit wasn’t bad. Black jeans and a white button up with small red roses dotted across it. Simple. Not something Hunk would’ve normally chose. In fact when Hunk chose, he nearly always selected one of Lance’s jumpers or hoodies because Hunk was like a fluttering mother hen who always worried about Lance getting too cold.

Lance packed his work clothes into Keith’s backpack and dusted out as many of the creases as he could out of his shirt before walking back out and handing the backpack back to Keith.

“... Did you pick the outfit?” Lance asked immediately as he sat down. “Sorry but Hunk would never choose something like this.”

“Oh.” Keith looked away before taking another sip of his coffee. “Yeah. Hunk was getting some stuff together ‘cause he’s at work early tomorrow so he just said to go in your room and get some stuff for myself. Hope you don’t mind. I didn’t snoop. Just grabbed the clothes and left.”

“It’s fine.” Lance fought the blush from reaching his cheeks, he didn’t mind the fact that Keith was in his room he’s been in there a thousand times so that didn’t matter, he was just surprised at the change of context. It was no surprise that every other occurrence of Keith being in Lance’s room was for a specific reason which was quite naughty in nature. Lance wondered if Keith had thought the same thing when he had walked in. 

Keith turned back to Lance’s eyes and smiled softly before downing the rest of his cup and grabbing Lance’s from him and walking them back up to the counter where Nyma took them gratefully. Lance didn’t miss the sultry look she shot in Keith’s direction before shooting a shocked expression towards Lance as if to say “ _ he is too hot to handle. _ ” 

Lance agreed but he definitely didn’t want his coworkers to start noticing the very attractive boy who was picking him up from work. Lance should just thank his lucky stars that Keith is what the kids call “gay gay” and not “bi gay” like Lance, meaning that if any of Lance’s attractive coworkers did try and get in contact with Lance’s “hot friend” then none of them would be in with a chance. 

Lance wasn’t being possessive or jealous of his hot friend Keith, oh no, of course not, he just… Well… There was nothing  _ wrong _ with his coworkers, in fact they were all genuinely lovely people who all deserved really good men who treated them all like the queens that they are. But they would have to look elsewhere and not at Lance’s very  _ gay _ hot friend Keith.

“Ready to go?” Keith suddenly snapped into Lance’s peripheral, bumping against his shoulder to get Lance moving in the direction of the front door.

Lance nodded and followed Keith’s lead out of the shop, with a final wave back to Nyma over their heads. The two walked down main street, barely an inch between them as they walked, Lance caught the occasional holded stares from strangers but it must have just been Lance’s imagination since Keith didn’t react to a single one of them as they walked until Lance saw the telling flash of red from Keith’s motorcycle dead ahead in front of them.

Keith opened the seat on the bike and pulled out two helmets, his own, and the guest one which he passed to Lance with a smug smirk. “Sure you can handle this one without throwing up? I don’t want dear Red to end up like my poor car.”

Lance blushed bright red thinking back to last month when Keith had picked Lance up from a party after Lance had been a little… too indulgent in the booze. “I was drunk. It wasn’t the car… and I’ve already apologised for that  _ and _ cleaned your car.”

Keith chuckled, lifting his helmet over his head and pulling it on, he lifted the cap up so Lance could hear him as he said. “My poor car still smells of JD and coke and I don’t ever see that changing.”

Lance groaned as he pulled his own helmet on and tightened the strap to the point where it nearly choked him under his chin, flipping up his own cap to speak. “Well I’m not drunk now so I’m sure I won’t throw up.”

“We’ll see.” Keith winked. “Take my backpack for me would you?”

“Why can’t you carry it?” Lance sassed but took the backpack when it was handed to him anyway, he checked to see it was fully closed and slung it over his back again tightening the straps till it was harshly pressed against his back, Keith’s wallet particularly poking into Lance’s lower back.

“Because I know what you’re going to do the second I turn this bike on, I thought I’d remove the layer so you can hold onto me as tight as you possibly can.” Keith snorted as he climbed onto the bike, kicked up the stand and began to walk the bike backwards so that he could easily pull out after the engine started.

“You think I’m going to be scared?” Lance rolled his eyes.

“The fact that your helmet strap is hiding between your skin because you have it that tight, yes, I’d say you’re a little worried. But don’t worry, baby-” Keith winked, reaching forward and grabbing Lance’s wrist and pulling him closer. “When it comes to riding. I’m a professional. Jump on.”

Lance rolled his eyes again, harder this time, for good measure before carefully climbing onto the back of the bike, careful where he put his feet, his hands, his ass, he didn’t know how to sit. He sat a good few centimeters from Keith but he felt unsteady even not moving like this.

“Lance.” Keith turned over his shoulder to try and speak, although it was difficult Lance could just about make out his words. “You’re going to have to sit right up against me, then you can wrap your arms around me, otherwise you’re going to mess up our balance when we go around corners.”

“Don’t tell me that!” Lance squaked, throwing his body forward immediately till he was flush against Keith’s back.

“So you are scared.” Keith chuckled, reaching back and taking one of Lance’s hand, pulling it around his waist. Lance didn’t need telling again, snaking his other arm around and squeezing maybe a little too ti- “Lance, I can’t breathe when you hold this tight.”

Right. Loosen up, Lance, it’s just a bike. Keith’s been riding for nearly two years now. He’s as safe as he’s going to get.  _ Trust Keith, trust Keith, trust Keit- _

“I love speeding on this thing but I won’t go too much above the speed limit since you’re nervous.” Keith laughed before flipping on the engine, effectively cutting off Lance’s yelling reply.

Before Lance could start writing his will, or just saying his prayers, Keith was off. Thrusting the bike forward into the direction the traffic was going and down the main street, speed slowly but surely increasing as Keith expecterly weaved his way between the cars.

Lance couldn’t bare to look, tucking his head down and closing his eyes, trying to keep his grip loose enough to not kill his driver, but also tight enough to try and steady his increasing heart rate.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.” Lance chanted. 

“Lance.” Keith’s voice carried from in front of him. “It’s okay. We’re fine. Just lean your body with me, I’ll keep you safe.”

Lance shuddered and Keith must have felt it as a few seconds later the bike began to slow down again, not to a stop but to the same speed that the rest of the traffic was going even though the bike could very easily quickly weave around it all, Keith was choosing to slow down and move slowly with it. 

“Lance.” That voice returned followed by one hand resting on Lance’s tight arms. “Trust me.”

“I’m trying!” Lance called back as the traffic came to a stop and Keith stopped with it, resting one foot on the floor as a stand. “I’m just not the biggest fan of your death trap you call a bike.”

“Lance, trust me, I wouldn’t have brought her if I didn’t think you would learn to love her. Give it one or two rides and you’re going to be begging me to take you out on it.” Keith turned over his shoulder as best as he could, rubbing his arm down Lance’s to try and give a bit of comfort.

“I doubt that.”

“Trust me.”

“I just said I’m trying!” Lance whined.

“Try harder.” Keith laughed. “Give me the reigns. Let me do what I do. Just hold on and I swear, in no time you’ll be laughing.”

Lance groaned in worry, he didn’t mean to be the pain in the ass on the journey, he hadn’t expected to feel like vulnerable when he got on the damn bike but there was something about the wind rushing up his shirt and his bare arms that didn’t sit right with him.

“Hold me as tight as you want.” Keith spoke once more. “Even if you have to squeeze the life out of me. Squeeze me until you don’t need to squeeze anymore. You can hold me for as long as you need.”

Lance sighed, relent breaking. Mostly because he felt bad that now his reaction was holding them up and Keith could be spurring them forward right now through the traffic if it wasn’t for Lance.

“Okay. Okay.” Lance agreed, shifting to get more comfortable in his seat. “Go, I’m ready.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” 

Keith nodded, taking his hand from Lance’s arm and back to join his other on the handlebars before spurring the bike forward once more, picking up his foot as they began to move. They started slow at first, carefully weeding through the rush hour gridlock-like traffic and away from the main road. Once they escaped the traffic the ride grew a lot smoother, just sailing forward at a constant speed.

It was enough of a constant that Lance grew enough courage to peer out over Keith’s shoulder at the open road. 

“Woah.” Lance hadn’t even realised he’d spoke when he suddenly felt Keith’s chuckle against his front, and it was only then that Lance realised his situation. Pressed up against Keith’s body, so hard that he could feel each inhale and exhale from Keith’s lungs, almost feel his heartbeat pounding against Lance’s chest, or maybe that was his own heartbeat it was hard to tell.

Speaking of hard, as all of these realisations came to him it was getting increasingly difficult to stop his body from reacting like the inner teenager it was. He could feel it getting worse and worse as Keith made a turn, Lance grip tightening and accidently pulling up Keith’s shirt as he did so, Lance’s shirt had already been pulled up when they first started but he wasn’t about to let go of Keith to pull it back down  _ while _ they were moving. So Lance just had to deal with this development of skin against skin as Keith drove.

“Having fun?” Keith called back.

Lance was thankful that Keith had no choice but to face forward cause Lance could just imagine his face right now, beat red from embarrassment… and other things. Sure the helmet would’ve been an okay cover story if need be, blood rushing to his head, blah blah blah, but he’d rather avoid the embarrassment.

“Lance?”

“G-Go faster.” Lance called out, testing his confidence. Focusing on trying to keep his growing interest from becoming a growing problem was a good distraction from the anxiety of being on the bike, in fact the bike was the least of his worries now.

Keith nodded and carefully squeezed on the accelerator till they were gliding down the road, a lot faster than the speed limit probably allowed, and closer towards their destination. As they rode, Lance felt himself grow more and more comfortable, his grip loosening to the point where he just tucked his hands into Keith’s jacket pockets at his side rather than curled around him in a tight hug like before. 

Lance even squealed in delight as they sped across an empty intersection and down a right into the shopping complex carpark where the bowling alley was tucked away inside. Before too long, they parked up to a stop. Keith placed his foot down, tapping Lance’s hands as a signal to get off which Lance quickly did. Jumping off the bike elegantly like he was being scored for it and watching as Keith kicked down the stand and switched the engine off.

Not even being subtle about it, Lance outwardly stared as Keith carefully climbed off Red and stepped over to where Lance was shaking with excitement.

“Well?” He laughed.

“That was actually… Wow. That was-” Lance grinned as he pulled his helmet off, his heart beat slowly returning to normal. “I can’t believe I actually came to like that. How did you know I wasn’t going to pass out and die?”

“CBT.” Keith smiled, pulling off his own helmet and tucking it under his arm. “Anxiety can only stay so high for so long before it comes down when it realises there’s nothing to be scared off. You’re the one who taught me it remember.”

“Shut up, no way.” Lance laughed but he couldn’t stop the wide smile overtaking his very being, he watched as Keith lifted the seat and placed his helmet inside before reaching back for Lance’s and putting that inside too before locking the seat down. “Wow. That was amazing. Oh wow.”

“You know,” Keith turned around as Lance was reeling. “Don’t take this the wrong way…”

“What?” Lance innocently asked just as Keith took a dangerous step towards him, a sultry smile on his face. 

Before Lance realised what was about to happen, Keith reached forward and pulled Lance in by the waist and leaned into his ear. “Did you know, adrenaline can be quite the turn on.”

Lance froze in surprise, feeling Keith’s breath against his ear, it was a struggle for him to get out even the one word. “S-So?”

Keith chuckled, now pulling away to laugh. “Well, I was just thinking for the last half of that ride… You must have had a lot of adrenaline going around, that’s all I’m saying, or did you just put a bottle of water in your pocket and not tell me?”

Here comes the blush. Lance cried out in shock “ _ you’re the worst”  _ and shoved at Keith’s shoulders before running inside to the arcade as fast as he could without even another glance back at Keith. He sprinted inside the complex and didn’t stop till he found the arcade hidden away in one corner and ran in. He was immediately thankful when a familiar smile caught his eye from just inside the doorway.

Lance ran right up to them and happily let himself be tugged in by the beautiful princess who awaited.

“You made it!” Allura laughed, wrapping Lance up in a tight hug. “We almost thought you weren’t going to make it in time, there’s still some lanes open.”

“Oh good.” Lance giggled back. 

“Gosh, it’s been so long since we’ve done something like this.” Allura released her grip so Lance was able to meet the eye of the other person stood with them.

“Yeah it has.” Shiro spoke up just as Lance was pulled away from one hug to another, Shiro’s being a bit more tighter though, like a boa constrictor around it’s next meal. Okay maybe not that bad. “Where’s Keith?”

“That asshole is behind me somewhere.” Lance mumbled into Shiro’s shirt to try and hide his pink cheeks and ears.

“You two didn’t have a fight did you?” Allura asked worriedly to which Lance didn’t need to answer because it was at that moment that Keith came back and knocked his hips against Lance’s just as he was freed from Shiro’s grasp, almost toppling him to the floor.

“No. This moron just ran off before I’d gotten the chance to lock my bike.”

Lance’s balance returned to him and he glared in Keith’s direction, about to start something like tell everyone how Keith had played dirty to try and embarrass Lance but before he had the chance to tattle he was scooped up into another bone crushing hug.

“Lance!” His best friend squealed. “I’m so glad you came!”

“You’re only glad because I owe you money.” Another more grumpy voice came next.

When Lance was released he smiled at his two best friends, Hunk who had obviously been the one to hug Lance upon arrival and then the grumpy one being Pidge, which was no surprise. Grumpy was a staple emotion of theirs.

“Why do you owe him money?” Lance chuckled.

“We placed bets on whether you would get on Keith’s bike.” Pidge growled. “I said no way in hell, you’re a pussy and Keith’s insane. You weren’t about to get on that bike. Or so I thought.”

“Aww.” Lance reached forward and tousled with Pidge’s mane, it was starting to get longer now that they hadn’t cut it for a while, he liked it, it kind of suited them in a ‘it’s an untameable mop on top of their head that if was owned by a skiller craftsman could be something great. Sadly it was owned by Pidge’ kind of way. “Sorry, kiddo. If I’d known you’d bet on me to not do it, I would have driven the bike myself.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Keith shot back from behind but Lance ignored him. “Like I’d ever let you drive Red.”

Lance aimed a swift kick backwards into Keith’s shin without even looking and was satisfied to hear a pained  _ oof _ from behind.

“Shall we go then?” Shiro spoke up now. “We don’t want to wait until all the lanes are full and have to wait around.”

The group cheered in agreement and followed behind the two bigger adults of the six of them to the cash desk where the reigning couple booked the lane. After booking, each person took it turns to pay their share, Lance talking with whoever was free at that moment. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for you?” Keith asked, he’d already paid his way first and had moved back to talk to Lance as the others slowly paid and moved out of the way.

“It’s fine.” Lance smiled, grateful but definitely not accepting Keith’s offer. 

Finally, Lance was the last to pay and stepped up to the receptionist with a sweet smile. “Afternoon. Paying with them.”

“Lance.” Keith pulled his attention once more. “Are you sure?”

“No. Honestly, I’d rather pay for myself, Keith. I appreciate the offer though, it’s sweet.” Lance shrugged, not even looking to Keith but keeping his eyes completely on the receptionist the entire time as he pulled his wallet from his jacket pocket. “$16 for two games right?”

“$19 now.”

“O-Oh?” Lance gulped before he could even reach for his card, though that would be useless now since… Well. “Shit, I- I only have $17 on my card.”

Well technically, Lance had -$483 but his overdraft was 500 so he only had 17 that he could spend before he would start being charged interest for each day he was in his overdraft which would be about ten days till payday.

Just as Lance began going through all his options of what he could do, which really the only option was to call Hunk back over and ask to send him over $5 so Lance could pay for the game interest free. When Keith suddenly pushed passed Lance’s body and placed his own card down on the machine before Lance could stop him, the approval beep ringing in Lance’s ears as it did.

“Keith!” Lance gawped. “I said no-”

“It’s fine.” Keith rolled his eyes as he placed his card back in his wallet just as the receipt was printing. “You would’ve had to ask Hunk to transfer you some money from his phone and then paid, I just cut the time. Now you’ve paid we can go.”

“But-”

“If it’s that big a problem.” Keith placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder to stop him from rambling more. “You can pay me back when it’s easiest for you. You don’t get paid for another week and a bit right?”

Lance was glad the others had gone off by to the lane because he was feeling mighty bad right now, just using Keith’s money like that with no way to pay him back right now. “No…”

“So.” Keith continued. “Keep the money on your card in case of emergencies, and pay me back when you get paid or something, or not at all, I don’t mind paying for you, you know. Bowling was my idea after all.”

Lance was about to argue more but then stopped in surprise. “It was?”

“Yeah.” Keith shrugged as he took the receipt from the receptionist, both said their thank yous before heading in the direction the group had gone. “None of us had really gone out a done something for a while so I pitched bowling to Shiro. I’m sorry, I should’ve thought about everyone else's finances.”

“No, I-” Lance felt more guilt wash over him as he saw Keith’s face fall. “No. Keith. Sorry. It’s just been a tight month. I’m grateful you’ve let me borrow the cash and I will be paying you back.”

“Alright.” Keith nodded. “If you’re sure.”

“I am. Now come on, mullet man, I’m about to thrash you at bowling.”

That perked Keith up, a challenge was laid down, the gauntlet so to speak, and Keith was always going to be the first to pick it up. 

“Are you sure about that?” Keith smirked evilly. “Like how you always threaten to thrash me at pool then can never sink any of your own balls in?”

“They don’t call me sharpshooter for nothing.” Lance grinned as the pair reached the waiting group, already typing names onto the board. 

“They call you sharp shooter because of that time at the summer fair in high school when you hit the target on the dunk your teacher game.” Hunk laughed, catching the end of their conversation.

“Stop generalising your skills, Lance.” Pidge snorted. “Other than throwing bean bags at fairly large targets from not too far a distance, your aim is about the same as everyone’s.”

“This is discrimination!” Lance cried out in shock from everyone ganging up on him. “Is this racism? In my bowling alley? My poor Cuban soul. Honestly, and I’m only going to say this once, how dare you?”

“How can you pull the minority card when you literally aren’t the only minority here right now?” Stupid Korean heritage Keith laughed. 

Samoan Hunk came next, resting a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Why don’t you speak to Takashi Shirogane? I’m sure he can address your issues.”

“See you all in court, losers.” Lance mumbled, utterly defeated as he took a seat. He turned to Allura and Shiro who were huddled over the monitor giggling like kids.

Hunk seemed to turn and catch on as he turned and frowned suspiciously. “What are you two up to?”

“Nicknames!” Allura called back in glee before stepping back to admire her work. Shiro did the same and Lance watched as the monitor flashed up on the main screen above them.

_ 1st. The Heart. _

__ _ 2nd. The Head. _

__ _ 3rd. The Leg. _

__ _ 4th. The Arm. _

__ _ 5th. The Hair. _

_ 6th. The Mouth. _

“What?” Lance laughed. “Who’s who?”

Pidge turned to him with a dead face. “You’re obviously the mouth ‘cause you never shut up.”

Lance turned to Allura for help but she just shrugged and nodded. “I’m the heart, Shiro’s the head, Hunk you’re the leg, Pidge the arm. Keith, the hair.”

“Why am I the hair?” Keith frowned.

“That was the only obvious one I knew.” Lance snorted. “No one else would’ve been the hair would they?”

Keith shot Lance a lovely brandishing off his middle finger before the group got started. Allura first, followed by Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Keith, and then to finish with the best, Lance. 

Lance… Well, he liked to remain confident, like to fake that everything he did was on purpose but there was a pretty obvious fact he couldn’t deny.

He was not the best bowler.

He was okay, he got by, in fact he wasn’t in last place. That position was taken up by Pidge was getting angrier and angrier each time their ball went in to the gutter. But in the lead was Shiro, another fact that was getting more and more on Pidge’s nerves as the game went on.

“Shiro is using hacks!” Pidge snapped. “That’s all I’ve got. He’s wearing a robotic prosthetic and he’s programmed it to get strikes.”

“I agree!” Allura called out. “Cheating is the only explanation.”

Allura was only agreeing because she was in second place, only a few points behind Shiro with one strike between them. 

Hunk was in second to last, he wasn’t really playing to win. He was more focused on doing funny little run ups each time he took a shot, one under the leg, one backwards, one with his eyes closed (all three of those had guttered) it was amusing to watch. Lance might’ve done the same if he wasn’t fighting so hard for third place.

Keith and Lance were neck and neck, it was almost haunting how they scored the same each and every time. If Keith scored 6, Lance scored 6, if Keith got a spare, so did Lance. He just couldn’t pull the extra points to pull ahead both stuck together like glue.

By the 9th go Lance was a little bit stir crazy.

“This is ridiculous!” Lance snapped, scoring a 9, the exact same score as Keith had before him. “Forget Shiro’s arm, this whole lane is rigged.”

“I agree!” Keith nodded enthusiastically. “How else could a terrible bowler like Lance have the same amount of points as me?”

Lance turned to him with a gasp. “You’re going to eat your words for that, mullet man!”

In the end. 

The pair tied.

There wasn’t even a pause between the first and second game. All partnered up in little rivalries. Allura determined this time to score perfectly through the entire game and come first this time through against Shiro, Keith and Lance obviously not going for those top two positions since they weren’t insane, just battling against each other. Even Hunk and Pidge were challenging each other with who could do the most ridiculous run up on their turn. 

The second game went by a lot smoother since everyone brought their A game from the first go. Allura and Shiro battling over first place, at one point Shiro offered to sink a gutter to give Allura a fighting chance of keeping her lead but that had just infuriated the English girl, but she scored another strike that turn so who knows who was right.

Lance was in much the same boat, there was only a two point difference between him and Keith, each turn one would overtake the other by that same lead before swapping over again. Battling each other. By their 7th turn, Lance knew that if he wanted to steal the win this time he was going to have to play dirty. 

As Keith went up to play his next turn, Lance followed and stood beside him as he readied the shot.

“No cheating.” Keith growled as if sensing Lance’s intent. “You can’t touch me.”

Lance smirked, leaning in ever so slightly, not enough to touch but definitely enough for Keith to feel Lance’s breath against his neck. “What if I want to touch you?”

“Lance-”

“I’m not going to.” Lance purred, not pulling away. “But would you like to know what I would do if I could?”

Lance watched as Keith side eyed him nervously, the bob of Keith’s adam’s apple as he swallowed in what was most likely worry about what Lance was going to do. How rude. Lance wasn’t doing anything. He was just stood here talking. 

“Lance, you can’t-”

“I’d pull you up against me.” Lance interrupted now, keeping his voice down so that the others wouldn’t hear since Hunk obviously wouldn’t approve of Lance’s methods. “Like when we were on your bike, flush against my chest. Curve my arms around your body and snake my fingers into your jacket to keep you trapped against me. I’d push my face into the crook of your neck and-”

Before Lance could get out another word, Keith jumped forward as if burnt and threw his ball down the alley with a lot less grace than he had on previous rounds. It wasn’t a gutter ball, much to Lance’s disappointment, but he’d only knocked down three.

“Fuck sake, Lance!” Keith groaned but thankfully he didn’t look necessarily angry. “That’s cheating! You’re distracting me!”

“You could always ignore me.” Lance giggled like a naughty child. “It’s not like you have to listen to me.”

“Go sit down while I finish my turn, and be ready because I am going to ruin your next turn.” Keith shoved gently at Lance’s shoulder but Lance could see the amused smile on his face, Keith was enjoying this just as much as Lance, maybe for a different reason but oh well.

Lance did as commanded, sitting back down with Hunk while Keith took his second shot.

“You better not have done what I think you just did.” Hunk immediately leaned in and whispered. “I’m not going to have to come home to the two of you doing things you shouldn’t be.”

Lance laughed but didn’t respond, his intentions were purely harmless, just Lance’s competitive nature to try and get Keith to lose the game. It didn’t matter if everything Lance had just said was entirely true, that wasn’t the point, the point was throwing Keith off and it had worked.

Keith came back a second later, pouting like the angry teenager he was as Lance looked up at the screen. He’d only knocked down another three pins on his second go giving Keith only a seven point lead in front of Lance. If Lance could just knock down eight pins on this next go he would take the lead and hopefully just keep that up for the last few gos and he’d be home free.

“Get up here, McClain.” Keith growled, tugging at Lance’s hand. “Let’s see how you like it now.”

Lance was pretty sure he could do this, if he set his mind to it he wouldn’t be affected by any of Keith’s words, Keith would obviously keep it tame so there was no way that Lance was going to be getting flustered from this boy, no way Bob.

He allowed himself to be pulled by Keith up to the waiting bowling balls before grabbing the one he needed.

“Your fingers are so long, Lance.” Keith looked genuinely surprised as Lance threaded his fingers into the holes. “You’re fingers aren’t even in to the second knuckle.”

“What can I say?” Lance chuckled. “I’ve been blessed. I’ll make someone very happy one day.”

Keith’s surprise began to morph as Lance walked up the alley, going from surprise into something much darker, a lot more dangerous. “You already have.”

Lance creased his eyebrows as he tried to keep himself from looking Keith’s direction. “Have I now?”

“Yep.” Keith whispered, popping the ‘p’, he was leaning so close now that Lance could feel the warmth of his breath against his cheeks. “I remember those fingers.”

_Uh oh._ _Don’t go down this road, Keith, don’t go down this road._

“Keith…” Lance whispered warningly, if this was going where Lance thought it was going (and he knew Keith’s voice right now, it was definitely going that way) then it had to stop. There’s a big difference between what Lance did and what Keith is now-

“You could reach all sorts of places.” Keith continued. “The darkest and most vulnerable places in a person.”

Lance licked his lips, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry and hoarse.

“Do you remember that time-”

_ Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Somebody stop him. Somebody just come and smite Lance down with a bolt of lightening, there was no way he could hear this, no way. _

“It was a few weeks before Christmas.” Keith was chuckling now. “You came over to my house to meet my foster parents. They didn’t know we were dating of course, which made it all the more perfect sneaking up the stairs into my room. Closing the door behind us and- Well I’m sure I don’t need to go into great detail of what happened next.”

Was it hot in here? Had they turned the thermostat up? Lance was positively roasting in his shirt right now, going on burning.

“Keith.” Lance whined, he could feel his legs shaking, he knew he could end this if he just took the shot. Every word that Keith spoke was like a demon’s kiss upon Lance’s skin, but he couldn’t move as he hung on to Keith’s story like missing the ending would be his doom. But that didn’t make any sense, Lance knew the ending, he was there, he suffered the embarrassment of being caught with his fingers deep inside his boyfriend by said boyfriends parents. He remembered throwing himself from the bed, almost smacking his head on the floor from the force as Keith desperately tried to maneuver the blanket to cover his exposed lower half.

“I still think about it sometimes.” Keith’s voice returned. “And do you wanna know a secret, Lance? A guilty little confession that I’ve kept with me all these years.”

Don’t say yes. Don’t say yes. Don’t say-

“What is it?” Lance gulped, it was too late now, he had to escape, couldn’t hear another word less risk spontaneously combusting right here in the middle of this alley, fingers tightly curled around his bowling ball like it was his very anchor to this planet. 

Keith leaned in till his lips brushed against Lance’s ear, Lance could’ve called cheating but he didn’t want to, and he knew Keith knew this if the further widening smirk and huff of amusement was anything to go on.

“Do you really wanna know?” Keith purred. “You’re going to think different of me.”

“What?” Lance gulped, a little more frantic now, he couldn't’t know but had to know. What was Keith’s guilty confession? What was it? Lance couldn’t go a minute longer without knowing.

Another breath. A gulp. A sigh. Inhale.

“You should’ve kept going.” 

Lance’s tongue caught at the back of his throat, he reached out one arm to grab the nearest thing for support, which happened to be Keith’s waist.

“Right in front of them.” Keith whined, a nail scratching down Lance’s arm. “Watching as their son came from just your fingers, reaching inside him like you knew every inch. You always knew how to give it so good, Lance, knew exactly what I wanted, how to make me beg, how to make me-”

Lance couldn’t take it anymore, he pulled away and threw the ball down the alley, didn’t even look where it went as he ran back to the group for support, away from the devil known as Keith Kogane.

“Oh Lance!” Keith cooed as he followed close behind, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck and jumping onto his back. “Are you telling me you couldn’t handle it?”

“That was-” Lance growled in frustration, neither of them had to mention the fact that Lance was very obviously hard and horny right now and thankfully neither of them did. Keith just laughed as he continued to hold onto Lance’s back no matter how much Lance tried to buck him off.

“You have another go.” Keith giggled, rubbing his hands up and down Lance’s chest. “Want me to come with you?”

Lance gasped, walking Keith over to the chairs and gently pushing him down onto them and off his back. “I’ll be fine, thank you, you can stay here you monster.”

Lance got up, took his shot, he hadn’t knocked a single pin down on his first go thanks to Keith’s input and on his second go, Lance watched painfully as only five pins went down. There was nothing more to say, Lance had lost, he’d dug his own grave and Keith threw him down into it.

Lance turned back to the group and walked over to see Hunk and Pidge staring at Keith with cautious eyes. 

“What did you do?” Pidge asked. “I’ve never seen Lance fuck up that bad, and this is Lance we’re talking about. Fucking up is basically a skill on his CV.”

“It’s just a bit of fun.” Keith covered, smiling big and wide. “No harm. Lance knows when he’s been defeated.”

“Yeah.” Lance nodded, throwing himself down beside Keith since he didn’t know what else really he could do. “I admit defeat, Keith wins, I don’t care anymore. I’m gonna be down for a long time.”

It was at this that Keith leaned over once more and whispered “you look pretty up to me” into Lance’s ear. Lance didn’t even grant Keith with a reply, just immediately stood back up to his feet, as quickly as he had sat down, and moved into the seat furthest away from him. He wasn’t going to listen to that temptress anymore, enough was enough. 

They finished off their games much like that, Lance was happy to take on the position of fourth place, he wasn’t about to fight Keith more for the third spot when Keith had ammunition like  _ that _ under his belt. Lance was no fool. He wasn’t about to risk it.

When Lance bowled his final ball, he was happy with the way things had gone. Well mostly.

Allura won the second game, but since Shiro had one the first, the pair just named their battle a tie. Pidge and Hunk’s competition was never over, they still had more ideas in them yet so they just drew a line under today.

Finally, Keith and Lance... Well… Keith won. Lance wasn’t going to argue anymore. He just wanted to crawl into his bed and maybe bank today into his naughty memories for usage at a later date. Lance was going to have many a wet dream about that whine that came from Keith earlier. Like something straight out of a good porn, magical.

Cruel world it be, how is it that even months down the lane Lance is still stuck with this ridiculous crush? If Lance was over it then that little stunt that Keith had just pulled would be nothing more than banter between friends, but no, instead Lance had to get all hot and bothered and throw the game.

Typical brain in his dick trying to make all the decisions.

“You look like you’re about to burst.” An arm suddenly reached around Lance’s shoulder and pulled him in tight. “Are you that mad that Keith beat you in the last round?”

Lance growled as he turned to the voice of his best friend, maneuvering himself around to grab around Hunk’s neck. “Keith cheated! You’re supposed to be on my side here, Hunky man.”

Hunk chuckled as Lance climbed around his body like a spider monkey. “What did he even do? One minute you were fine, the next you were practically running away from him.”

“He ju-” Lance stopped. He couldn’t tell Hunk the truth on this one, he could already hear Hunk’s disapproving tone in the back of his head.

_ Don’t go down this road again, Lance, you’ve been doing so well not trying to further the relationship, you two work so much better as friends. _

Bloody Hunk. It’s not fair. Lance just wanted to get rammed! Is that such a big deal and Keith isn’t helping?!

“It doesn’t matter.” Lance went with, jumping away from Hunk again and stalking forward where the rest of the group had stepped around and were now heading towards and then out the exit to the front of the car park.

“So.” Shiro nodded, as the six individuals crowded in a tight circle. “I only have the space for four in my car including myself, how should we go about carpooling?”

“I’ll take Lance back.” Keith perked up before anyone else had a chance to step forward. “On the bike obviously.”

Lance turned to Keith in surprise, he hadn’t expected Keith to volunteer him so quickly, even though Lance was kind of expecting having to go back with Keith since he had come with Keith in the first place.

“Are you sure?” Shiro raised an eyebrow in what looked like suspicion. “You could always take Pidge, since Hunk and Lance need dropping off at the same place.”

“It’s fine.” Keith turned to Pidge and knocked against their shoulder which his. “Pidge is a bad influence, making me go twice the speed limit.”

“I do not make you do anything.” Pidge rolled their eyes. “Don’t blame me, Hell’s angel.”

“Besides.” Keith chuckled at their words. “I promised Lance that he was going to enjoy riding on this bike, and if I don’t get him on it fearing for his life then how else am I going to keep that promise?”

The group chuckled and the plan was made, the other four quickly tottering off to Shiro’s car and driving away before Keith had even got the helmets out from underneath the seat. 

“How long does it take to get back to my place from here?” Lance smirked. “Do you think we can still beat them there, mad max?”

“Probably not.” Keith chuckled back as he threw Lance’s helmet behind his back before grabbing his own.

Lance placed the helmet over his head as Keith did the same, Keith jumped on first and turned the bike around ready to take off as Lance climbed on behind him.

Before Lance even had the chance to grab a hold, Keith turned around and cocked his head with a smile. “We won’t beat them, because we’re taking the long way. You’re going to fall in love with this bike, Lance, mark my words.”

Lance smirked, a challenge had been issued.

“Make me.”

  
  
  



	17. Chapter Seventeen

Days passed, Lance was happy.

No but. Seriously. He was really happy. Happier than he’d been in- Gods. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this happy and he didn’t even know why, he shouldn’t be this happy.

College was kicking his ass, he was barely keeping his head above water in terms of assignments but, the lectures were interesting and it felt like the passion he had when he was kid was slowly returning. Lance was pleasantly surprised that nowadays he couldn’t imagine doing anything except what he was doing now. He didn’t want to picture himself changing his major to Psychology like he’d wanted to a thousand times before so to actually… Be happy with his course?

Wow.

Then there was the flat. It might sound cheesy but a routine was good for Lance’s heart and head. University, work, hanging with Hunk, it was all scheduled in and Lance knew exactly where he was and what he was doing and what it was all for.

The group always met during free time and hung out, meeting for lunch or meeting at the end of the day at the library to work together on their assignments. It was fun, pleasant, a good thing for Lance’s usual messy head.

Then there was Keith. Since the group bowling a few days ago the two had been texting and it seemed without pause other than sleep, Lance couldn’t even place a certain topic the two talked about. They seemed to just talk about everything. Politics seemed a big one the last day or so, but mostly Lance supposed they talked about their similar courses (yes Lance could admit now that they were extremely similar courses). Speaking of, the familiar buzz of his mobile had Lance picking it up and flicking it to three new messages from Keith.

[14:46]  _ Keith: I’m just saying.  _

_ Keith: If his head was on fire.  _

_ Keith: You wouldn’t be able to tell ‘cause it would blend in with his skin. _

[14:49]  _ Lance: Stop picking on pensioners. _

[14:50]  _ Keith: #NotMyPensioner _

Lance covered his mouth as a surprised laugh escaped his lips, prompting a look over from his best friend who was sat opposite Lance on their couch, Hunk paying attention to the TV whereas Lance… Not so much.

This new routine for Lance Saturday’s was strange to say the least. Hunk now started later and finished later at work so it gave the pair of them time to actual chill and hang out of the morning and early afternoon, but not so much today since Lance was pretty attached to his phone right now. Lance hadn’t even looked up at the TV for a good hour nearly, at some point Hunk had changed the channel over to the cooking network but Lance hadn’t even bothered to see who was on the screen.

It was good. So good. Finally, a little time to just relax and shut down his brain and not have to think about anything but the next ridiculous line that Keith could think up.

But unfortunately, like with most things in Lance’s life, the gods weren’t about to continue to let Lance have it so easy. Oh no. So the difficulties began with a groan from Hunk and a slap against his thighs.

“Alright. I’ve put off leaving enough now.” Hunk suddenly sighed and stood up to his feet, passing the remote control over to Lance. “I’ve got an earlier start today so Kolivan can show me this new piece he’s working on for himself. He basically wants to teach me how to build a car from the ground up. I know before too long he’s going to ask me to work as just a mechanic, scrap me as a receptionist.”

Lance smiled sweetly up at his friend. “What will you say if he asks?”

“Same thing I told him when he asked a few months back. I can’t take on that sorta job while I’m still in college.”

“You’re scared you’ll love it too much and drop out.” Lance grinned. “What so wrong with that?”

“You might be right.” Hunk pointed a reprimanding finger in Lance’s direction. “But I did not pay thousands of dollars to just be a car mechanic. I’m not taking the risk.”

Lance just smirked back at his friend, reaching forward to poke Hunk’s outstretched finger. “Paying thousands of dollars to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life more like and that sounds pretty worth it to me.” 

“Take your optimist toosh somewhere else.” Hunk chuckled as he began to head out the living room to leave. “Meanwhile, I really do have to go otherwise it won’t matter whether or not I want to be a mechanic. Kolivan will fire me for tardiness.”

“Okay then grease ball.”

Lance returned his focus down to his phone, another text from Keith, or should Lance say, another punt at a certain president’s orange skin tone from Keith.

“Oh Lance.” Hunk called back from the hallway, breaking Lance’s focus once more. “I totally forgot, your mum called the landline while you were still in bed this morning. I told her I’d tell you to call her back. Don’t forget.”

“What like you did?” Lance gested back, since Hunk had forgotten for the last three hours since Lance had risen from his cave of a bedroom.

“Tell her I wish she had a better son.” 

“That's a bit harsh on my brothers since I'm the best of four.”

“If you ever bad mouth Javier like that again, I will kick you out of this flat. Mark my words , McClain.” Hunk quipped back before Lance heard the tell tale sound of the front door opening, a brief pause, and then banging shut.

Lance chuckled to himself after Hunk’s departure before returning his focus back to his phone to a new text from Keith.

[15:02]  _ Keith: Breaking news: I’m mad at Shiro. _

Lance smiled before typing a quick reply asking why, the response was almost immediate.

[15:03]  _ Keith: I’d been looking forward to this new movie for months _

_            Keith: Shiro promised to go with me to see it since I don’t really go out on many dates. _

_ Keith: BUT he just texted me to say that him and Allura are going to see it tonight _

_ Keith: And I am livid. Worst brother ever. 0 out of 10 would recommend. _

[15:05]  _ Lance: I dunno about that. I’d definitely recommend him, the man is God in a sleeveless hoodie. _

[15:06]  _ Keith: Don’t thirst over my brother, hoe. _

[15:06]  _ Lance: You can’t stop me, bitch. _

A reply from Keith didn’t come back right away, Lance waited maybe five minutes staring blankly at his phone waiting for it to tell them that Keith had seen the message but to no avail, he must have got caught up doing something or was taking a break from texting.

Keith was no social butterfly, and even Lance knew about himself that he was easier to handle in short bursts so it would be no surprise to him if Keith needed to pause and refuel his energy in order to match Lance’s.

So, fine with the situation, Lance rolled over onto his side and scrolled through his phone to his contacts and his Mother’s name. It would be best to call her now while he remembered or else he would forget and absolutely get crucified for it when she would inevitably call him later.

He quickly found her name and hit dial before pressing the phone to his ear, a permanent smile plastered to his face. It had been a while since he’d last contacted her. Almost a fortnight, which felt like a lifetime to a family orientated Lance, but things had been kinda hectic recently and Lance had been so overwhelmed with Keith presence that he’d barely cast a thought to his loving family back home, shame on himself for that.

A good time passed of dialing, Lance’s mother probably being busy with the twins or one of the many other hundreds of jobs required from her on a daily basis, Lance was almost about to hang up when suddenly the receiver clicked. Odd, if Lance’s mother was free she was usually much faster to answer, if she wasn’t then she wouldn’t answer the phone at all. If the time delay wasn’t strange enough, the awkward silence that followed took the cake.

“Mama?” Lance questioned after a couple more seconds of silence. “Are you there?”

Rustling sounded but finally Lance heard faint breathing from the other end of the line and a quiet voice follow.

“Mijo?” His mothers usually silky sweet voice sounded anything but, she sounded tired, like she hadn’t had the taste of sleep in years and was starving for it. “Is that you?”

“Si, Mama, it’s Lance. Are you alright?”

More silence, several ticks before Lance caught the faint sound of a whimper on the other end. “ _ No es bueno. Estoy demasiado triste. _ ”

Dread instantly overtook Lance’s body, for his mother to admit that she was upset about something was a sure sign that things were serious, his mother was always a pillar of positivity and hope in their family so for her to be- Lance was more than worried, instantly.

“What happened?” Lance sat up on the couch properly and leaned over so his elbows rested on his knees, silently begging for his mother to be alright, for his family to be alright. His nerve endings were on fire going through every single worse case scenario that could have played out, but he didn’t think worse enough.

“It’s Papa. Something happened.” Mama explained softly. “ _ Su corazón, su _ \- He’s back in the hospital. The doctors they-”

Another wail and gasp for breath as his mother desperately tried to get her words out as clearly as possible, it was obvious to Lance now that she was crying.

“Mijo. Another heart attack. Papa, he- He’s very sick, Mijo. He will be staying in the hospital for a while.”

Time stopped in that moment. The last time Lance’s father had a heart attack was back when Lance was in high school, but at that time his parents had their life savings to rely on to pay for treatment and to compensate Lance’s father being out of work for so long but this time… The savings were gone, finished off years ago. How would they be able to afford everything now? They had barely been hanging on before the heart attack but now.

“I-” Lance stuttered, he reached a hand to his face and felt his wet cheeks, he must have started crying too at some point. “I’m coming home.”

“No Mijo!” His mother suddenly snapped back, Lance hadn’t even meant to say that aloud, he knew his mother would never let him but he had to. This was his family afterall, he’d do anything for them. “Mijo! You stay in college! We will make do over here!”

“But Mama, I can’t just sit in another state doing nothing while you’re all struggling.” Lance whimpered like a reprimanded child after a tantrum. 

A long pause followed by a deep sigh. “You are not doing nothing. You are getting your education. That is important.”

“I can’t just… I can’t, Mama. I want to contribute, to help.”

“You help enough, Mijo, you already send us money, that is more than enough. You are such a good boy but I will not accept you leaving college in order to come home.”

Lance fell silent, he couldn’t accept that, he wouldn’t! His siblings would obviously rise up to support the family, Marie would be sending money, probably move back permanently into the family home, Alex and Javi would take responsible for housework and care of the twins. What was Lance doing? Nothing! That was unacceptable.

“... Well…” Lance gulped. “What if I sent more money? Would you at least accept that? I want to help Mama. Please let me.”

“Mijo, I know how you struggle enough for money. I wouldn’t accept anything that made you struggle to pay your rent or prevented you from being able to eat.”

“I just got a pay rise!” Lance lied. “Like a big one. Plus I’ve got nothing going on at college at the moment, no assignments due for over a month, I could up my hours for a little bit and send some money home.”

Lies dripped off Lance’s tongue with ease, not surprisingly since he’d used these lies a hundred times with his mother, it was the only way to convince her to accept money from him. He’d especially used it back in high school after Pa’s first hospitalisation, he would lie and say he was going to study at the public library but really he would knock out dozens of hours at his old job at the local supermarket, his mother didn’t like him working long hours so Lance would lie and say his pay was higher than it actually was. It was the only way to earn the amount he really wanted to.

“We couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking.” Lance whispered, he could hear his mothers resolve slip in her voice, she was so close to accepting, so close. “I want to Mama, please.”

“I- I-” Lance’s mother paused, Lance could hear her shuffling around on the other side of the line, rustling with bits of paper. “How much can you send Mijo?”

“How much do you need?”

“You already send us $200 a month, Mijo.”

“How much is the mortgage?”

Another pause. “Over $700.”

“Okay. Then I will send that. So you don’t have to worry about the Mortgage. One less thing.”

“Mijo, that is way too much money.”

“It’s alright. I can pull some extra hours, I want to do this, Mama. It’s fine.” Lance whispered.

“Mijo-”

“Mama.” Lance whispered. “This is my choice.”

The pair fell into silence, there was no more to be said or argued, Lance had made his choice and as much as it may hurt Mama’s pride to admit, the help would be greatly appreciated.

“I love you, Mijo. You are such a good boy.” Mama whispered.

“I love you too, Mama.”

Suddenly, down the receiver Lance could hear high pitched shouting on his Mother’s end.

“¡Cuán maleducados son!” His mother exclaimed just as high pitched and loud. “Marie! I am on the phone with your brother, do not shout for me!” 

“It’s alright, Mama. I have to go anyway. I’ve got to get some housework done while Hunk’s at work. I’ll send you the money in a couple of weeks but I’ll obviously speak to you before then.”

“Te amo, Mijo.”

“Te amo, Mama.”

_ Click. _

Lance dropped his phone into his lap covered his face with his hands as he continued to silently weep. He couldn’t believe that this was happening again, Papa was supposed to have been on the mend, the previous incident only meant to be a slight blip that he would recover from quickly.

_ Stop Lance!  _ No use in whining about how it wasn’t fair! How his family didn’t deserve this. It did and Lance had to move on and get with the programme fast or risk letting his family down.

Lance had no choice. He wanted to do this, he had to. But first, he had to talk to Rolo. Sure he might owe Rolo a lifetime of favours but it would definitely be worth it. In the end. Lance pulled his phone back up from his lap, jumped to his feet and scrolled through till he found his work group chat.

_ The Real Hustlers Work chat (Members; Nyma, Romelle, Lance, Bii-Boh-Bii, Ezor, Sven) _

[15:37]  _ Lance: Who’s on shift right now? _

Lance bounced from one foot to other, then began pacing across the room only to stop and bounce once more on the balls of his feet. He almost dropped his phone when it suddenly vibrated in his hand.

[15:39]  _ Ezor: Romelle swapped over with me at 11. She should still be there. _

Lance gulped, he was glad it was her since Romelle was probably the closest coworker he had so if had to appear desperate to someone, he’d be fine being desperate with Romelle. No sooner had the thought finished in his head did his phone buzz again.

[15:40]  _ Romelle: I sure am. _

[15:41]  _ Nyma: Obviously working hard since she was so quick to answer her phone...  _

[15:41]  _ Romelle: Is that the pot calling the kettle black? _

[15:42]  _ Bii-Boh-Bii: OoO _

[15:43]  _ Romelle: What did you need Lance? _

Lance’s hands shakily typed a reply.

[15:44]  _ Lance: Has Rolo been around today? _

Romelle’s picture followed the new message and slowly began to type her own before hitting send.

[15:46]  _ Romelle: He’s actually here right now in the office going through some stuff, must be important ‘cause he’s been in there an hour and hasn’t checked on me once, I’ve just been playing candy crush all day since the shop’s pretty dead. _

An opportunity. A bit of luck. Lance could go and talk about this with Rolo in person, at least that way he couldn’t be blown off over text with some lame excuse, Rolo might actually really consider it. If Lance was extra lucky, which to be fair wasn’t particularly likely given Lance’s luck as of late.

[15:48]  _ Lance: Keep him there, I’m coming down now to speak to him. It’s very important. _

Without a second look at the chat, Lance sprinted from the living room to the front door. He threw on his shoes haphazardly and grabbed his coat, keys and phone before running out the front door barely even stopping to check if he’d forgotten anything as he took off down the hall and down the stairs. Lance would have to run to work more often because it took barely a third of the time it would’ve taken him if he’d walk. In less time than expected, he was bursting through the door, almost crashing in to someone about to come as he did so.

“I’m so sorry!” Lance gasped as he looked over the almost victim, seeming fine he apologised again and jumped away over to the counter where Romelle was watching him with an amused smile across her lips.

“That was quick.” She giggled as Lance slammed his hands down on the counter. “Were you nearby? Or did you seriously run here?”

“Where’s Rolo?” Lance gasped for breath, wasting no time with pleasantries, he was here for a reason and that wasn’t to share sweet words with the lovely Romelle. That could come after he’d achieved his tasks.

“You’re fine.” She outright laughed now. “He’s still in the back room, he’s going to be a while, you didn’t have to run down here so fast.”

“Well you didn’t say he was going to be here for a while, just that he had been.” Lance paused, leaning over and resting his hands on his knees while he focused on getting his breath back. “I couldn’t take the chance of missing him.”

“Let me guess…” Romelle smirked, casually wiping down the countertop of crumbs. “You’re finally quitting right? Moving onto bigger and better things? Why a potential astronaut is working as a barista has always confused me.”

“Well, Rolo doesn’t pay you to ask questions.” Lance joked, his tone a bit too neutral though to convey the joke properly.

The expression on Romelle’s face agreed.

“Joking.” Lance gulped, his face breaking into an apologetic smile, though it was difficult to put on a smile when his mind was still running even though his body had stopped. “Rolo… Back room you say? Mind if I scoot off and have a chat with him?”

“Knock yourself out.” Romella shrugged, returning back to what she was doing, just in time as a new customer walked in through the door.

Lance nodded and jogged his way over and burst through.

“Rolo!” Lance called out immediately. “Are you in here?”

Lance heard fumbling to the right and turned just in time to see Rolo poke his head around a large filing cabinet. “Lance? Isn’t it your day off?”

Lance gulped, suddenly sheepish as he jogged over to Rolo’s side. “Yes but… I- Umm- I need to talk to you.”

Rolo’s face showed confusion for a second, but he nodded and came out from behind the cabinets and stepped in front of Lance. “You’re not quitting are you?”

Lance frowned. “What? No?”

Rolo let out a breath, visibly relieved. “Good. I really don’t have the time at the moment to be hiring and training new staff. What’s up, man?”

“It’s kind of the opposite.” Lance gulped, now a little nervous to ask. “Some things are going on at home and I really need to pick up some more hours.”

“You know I would if I could, man, but they’re simply not there. All the hours are accounted for and I’ve got no complaints for the first time in my entire managerial life.” Rolo nodded, stepping around Lance and making his way towards the back door.

“Come on, Rolo.” Lance followed as they walked back to the shop floor where Romelle watched their entrance with a knowing smile on her face. “You know I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t desperate, I really need the hours. I’ll do anything.”

That caught Rolo’s attention. He turned back with a frown, but a raised eyebrow which had to be a good sign. “Anything?” 

“Yes!” Lance pleaded, he knew he was looking a tad bit pathetic right now (and in front of Romelle, yikes). 

Rolo pondered for a few moments, scratching at his facial hair before clearly realising something and clicking his fingers. “Alright. Alright. I’ll give you some extra hours, I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”

“I’ll take anything.”

“Fine.” Rolo nodded. “I’ve been wanting to move Nyma over to my other shop to become manager for a while now but I haven’t had the time to hire new staff in here and cover the admin while training her. It’ll be a lot of hours, are you sure?”

“I’ll do everything you have.” Lance agreed enthusiastically.

“Well. You’ll have to cover her shifts that she’ll be missing for the first few weeks, you’ll have to do the rota for the next few weeks for the shop and do the payroll. It’ll just be for the few weeks while I focus with Nyma and getting her trained, I won’t have the time to micromanage that shop while still managing this one so you’ll have to pick up my slack. It’ll be a lot of hard work.”

“How many extra hours will we be looking at?” Lance smiled, this was what he wanted, this was what he wanted. 

“Well, Nyma’s contract is twenty-five hours, plus your own contract of twenty hours, and you’ll have to fit the admin work where you can, probably while other members of staff are on shift. I’d say with your talent you can get the admin to about five to ten hours a week.” Rolo counted the numbers on his fingers as he went. “It’ll be extremely difficult. A few weeks of a lot of hard work from you. Then, when Nyma has fully taken over management from the other shop I’ll take back the administration from you and focus on hiring a new member of staff. But, once someone new is hired I can increased your contract to as many hours as you want. Twenty-five, thirty, however many hours you want.”

Lance gulped. “So… Fifty hours a week. Okay. That’s fine. That’s great.”

_ This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. This is what you wanted. _

It’s worth it. 

Things quickly changed. After his conversation with Rolo, Lance went home and grabbed his notebook to start planning a new budget. Fifty hours on his current pay would see him on about $450 a week. Sure the advanced hours were only temporary but if they last a month that could mean Lance bringing in nearly $2000. Subtract his usual pay that covered rent and food bills would take that down to $1400. That would definitely be a good splash of cash to send just to help with the mortgage, fuel and food bills. Then Lance could just increase his contract when Nyma was moved and Lance could see some good money coming in to send to his Ma.

So… That was it. 

Lance didn’t mean to drop off the face of the planet, but it seemed as work hours increased Lance stopped talking to all those he loved. His conversations with Keith stopped immediately, Keith tried but Lance was always too busy to reply, trying to fit administration and cleaning into the short amounts of time when the shop was closed.

He never told Hunk what was going on but Lance could feel Hunk’s worried eyes burn into the back of his neck anytime he was leave the house and head to work. College was all but a distant memory, Lance knew he had deadlines coming up but with missing his lecturers and seminars and having next to no free time, he left them in the dust.

College could wait. Nothing was more important than family, right?

That thought probed Lance’s mind over and over again, he was doing the right thing, or at the very least he had the best intentions. 

Whether he liked it or not, this was his choice, and he’d made it. No going back.


End file.
